gay girl in damascus.

Why did we believe the Gay Girl in Damascus blog? Why did we think, in a repressive and close-minded society, that a lesbian woman could be comfortably out and displaying her sexuality openly on the Internet? Why did we believe, in a country that has condoned honor killings for homosexual activity, that a lesbian woman's father would defend her to the security forces, who have killed hundreds of Syrians over the past several months precisely for being outspoken?

(For those not up to speed: blog appears that is allegedly the writings of Syrian-American Amina Arraf, a lesbian living in Damascus. Blog gains large following, especially after it is announced that Amina has been kidnapped by the Syrian authorities. Finally, blog's true author, 40-year-old graduate student Tom MacMaster, posts to say that the whole thing is fiction.)

We believed because we desperately want to think that the stories we've heard about Syrian (and, more broadly, Middle Eastern) culture simply aren't true. We want to believe that the Syrian government does not brutally crush dissidents. We want to believe that Syria and countries like it are becoming more open and tolerant. Despite all evidence to the contrary, we want to believe things are going well.

Yet the facts remain: Syria is comparatively secular for a Middle Eastern state, but it is not liberal. Bashar al-Assad, once a quiet ophthalmology student, has followed in his father's footsteps. The country is rife with sectarian tensions, both ethnic and religious, and has only maintained a semblance of stability via some of the strictest free speech restraints in the region. The culture is extremely socially conservative. There are inklings of change on the lips of protesters across the country, but even if the Assad regime does fall, it will be decades upon decades before these grow into full-blown progress.

These are not bright, shiny prospects. They are optimistic, if at all, in a very far-reaching sense. Still, we would like to be optimists here and now. And that's why we believed.