Missing blogger, shrouded in Mystery.

Missing blogger Amina still appears missing, but the story took a twist. Some are saying she doesn't exist. I've even read some paranoid dude that the blog is a CIA endeavour.  What's for sure is that if she is really missing, her well-connected family has taken matters into their own hands and are using their connections and resources to find her. They aren't wasting time with the international media who loves a good story and a pretty face.

If I'd been Amina I sure wouldn't have used my real name, I would only connect to the internet using proxies and I would make sure no one could connect me to my family. Why? Because other bloggers who have been less vocal, like Tal al-Mallouhi, were arrested. Of course she just went missing. It was only because of awareness of her being missing that finally her family found which jail she was being kept at and she got a trial. She got a 5 year sentence. For blogging!

So the fact Amina's blog has gone silent after a message from her cousin that she is missing certainly doesn't mean it's a hoax. There's a real woman right now, in a Syrian jail, fate unknown. She isn't the only one. She's with 10,000 other people randomly arrested for disturbing the peace, or being against the government of Syria or whatever charges those in power have decided.

Just because no one can track down Amina's real identity does not mean she isn't one of thousands being brutalized in a Syrian jail.

I still pray for the safe release of all of them.