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A Gay Girl in Damascus

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Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari
A Gay Girl In Damascus (blog) character
First appearance19 February 2011
Last appearance6 June 2011
Created byTom MacMaster
In-universe information
GenderFemale
OccupationTeacher
ReligionIslam
NationalitySyrian, US

Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari was a fictional character or hoax persona created and maintained by American peace activist and graduate student Tom MacMaster.[1] The identity was presented as a Syrian-American blogger, identifying herself as a lesbian on her weblog A Gay Girl In Damascus and blogging in support of increased civil and political freedom for Syrians. During the 2011 Syrian uprising, a posting on the blog by a person who introduced herself as Amina's cousin reported that Amina was abducted on 6 June 2011 and her whereabouts were unknown for several days. This sparked a strong backlash from the LGBT community and was covered widely in mainstream media.

In the wake of the reports, questions arose regarding the possibility that Araf al Omari was an elaborate hoax. Author/blogger Liz Henry, Andy Carvin (a journalist with National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.) and others raised doubts about the identity of the blogger.[when?] The photos purported to be of her were proven to be a woman residing in Britain with no relation to Syria, the blog, or the ongoing protests in the country. On June 12, Ali Abunimah and Benjamin Doherty of the website Electronic Intifada conducted an investigation that pointed to a strong possibility that the identity of "Amina" was MacMaster, an American living in Edinburgh.[2] Hours later, Tom MacMaster posted on "Amina's" blog and took responsibility for the blog and the false reports of her capture.[3]

Fictional biography

The character of Amina Abdallah Araf is a dual Syrian and American citizen, with an American mother and Syrian father.[4] The Lede Blog (of The New York Times) noted that Amina's draft of her biography indicated "very deep" American roots.[5] She wrote that she was born in Staunton, Virginia, in October 1975 to Abdallah Ismail Arraf and Caroline McClure Arraf. The McClures had emigrated to Virginia from Ulster in 1742. Four decades later, Ms. Araf added, her mother’s family fought in the American Revolution at Yorktown, “earning me the right to be in the DAR [A Daughter of the American Revolution].”[5]

Her family moved to Syria at six months and she grew up between the two countries.[6] She spent a long period in the US after 1982, when an Islamist uprising in Syria was being violently put down.[6] She realized she was gay when she was 15 and it terrified her.[6] After planning to attend Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia, she decided not to attend because she was troubled by the number of open lesbians on campus.[7] She came out at 26 and returned to Syria to enjoy a calm life.[7] There she taught English until the uprising closed classes.[6][8]

Amina experienced prejudice both in the US and Syria, but says she sees no conflict in being both gay and Muslim.[6] "I consider myself a believer and a Muslim: I pray five times a day, fast at Ramadan and even covered for a decade...I believe God made me as I am and I refuse to believe God makes mistakes."[6] She described an experience finding other gay women in Syria: "I went into a hair salon one day and, not long after I arrived, I picked up on something between the women working there; I spoke around in circles and so did they and finally learned that the women there were all gay. We relaxed, we talked...I realized I'd found an underground outpost of our kind. I found a cafe where women held hands."[9]

Amina's position as a dual citizen informed her political and cultural perspective, as well as being a lesbian. "I'm the ultimate outsider...my views are heavily informed by being both a member of a small marginal minority as an Arab Muslim in America and as a part of a majority as a Sunni in Syria, and of course as a woman and as a sexual minority." "It's tough being a lesbian in Syria," she said, "but it's certainly easier to be a sexual than a political dissident...There are a lot more LGBT people here than one might think, even if we are less flamboyant than elsewhere."[6]

The day before she was announced detained, Araf wrote: "I am complex, I am many things; I am an Arab, I am Syrian, I am a woman, I am queer, I am Muslim, I am binational, I am tall, I am too thin; my sect is Sunni, my clan is Omari, my tribe is Quraysh, my city is Damascus,...I am also a Virginian. I was born on an afternoon in a hospital in sight of where Woodrow Wilson entered the world, where streets are named for country stars."[9]

Character and blog

Creation and spread

MacMaster created the character Amina Abdallah as a fictional persona; MacMaster said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) that he could not recall when he created the character. NPR stated that it found posts from "Amina" at the Yahoo! group "alternate-history" dating to February 2006. MacMaster said that he created the Amina character so he could more easily participate in discussions about the Middle East. MacMaster argued that if he used his real name, people would have believed that he was too closely tied to the United States, but as Amina he would have more credibility. As Amina, MacMaster posted on various listservs and websites. MacMaster fleshed out her character, and he said that he began writing a novel based on the character. He created various profiles for Amina at various social networking sites. Originally he used the character to discuss politics of the Middle East and science fiction. In the northern hemisphere fall of 2010, MacMaster moved Amina to Syria. MacMaster said that he was going to stop using the persona by then. Eyder Peralta of NPR said that "But the Arab Spring called her back."[10]

In February 2011 MacMaster posted as "Amina" on the website Lez Get Real, which was operated by Bill Graber, a straight man pretending to be a lesbian woman named "Paula Brooks." MacMaster and Graber corresponded, and under the "Amina" character MacMaster flirted with the "Paula" character. Graber said that the interaction "was a major sock-puppet hoax crash into a major sock-puppet hoax."[11] As "Amina" MacMaster wrote pieces for Lez Get Real.[12]

MacMaster began the blog A Gay Girl in Damascus under the "Amina" name,[10] and the first entry appeared on February 19, 2011.[13] The publication, known for its witty commentary on politics, gender, sexuality, and Syrian culture, became, in the words of Nidaa Hassan of The Guardian, "increasingly popular after capturing the imagination of the Syrian opposition as the protest movement struggled in the face of the government crackdown."[8] The blog's tagline is "An out Syrian lesbian's thoughts on life, the universe and so on ..."[14]

Amina's writing gained popularity after an April 26 post titled "My Father the Hero"[6][15] about two security agents who came to her home to detain her and were kept away by her father. She and he went into hiding soon after, changing locations in Damascus.[9]

Katherine Marsh of The Guardian described the blog as "brutally honest, poking at subjects long considered taboo in Arab culture".[6] The character of Amina explained, "Blogging is, for me, a way of being fearless, I believe that if I can be 'out' in so many ways, others can take my example and join the movement."[6]

Homosexuality

See also: LGBT rights in Syria

Homosexual activity is illegal in Syria, and is punishable by at least 3 years in prison,[16] and it is uncommon for gay Arabs to be open about their sexuality.[17] Syria's human rights record is among the worst in the world, according to Human Rights Watch.[17] The character of Amina wrote openly about her sexual orientation, experiences, and aspirations: "I live in Damascus, Syria. It’s a repressive police state. Most LGBT people are still deep in the closet or staying as invisible as possible. But I have set up a blog announcing my sexuality, with my name and my photo. Am I crazy? Maybe. But I’m also aware of the winds of freedom and change blowing from one end of the Arab world to the other. And I want that freedom wind to bring with it our liberation, not just as Arabs and as Syrians, but also as women and as lesbians."[5][18]

In an email interview with CNN MacMaster wrote as Amina that she believed that political change could improve gay rights. "A whole lot of long time changes are coming suddenly bubbling to the surface and views towards women, gay people and minorities are rapidly changing...What has really startled me has been the fact that I have received no criticism from Islamic sources...Instead, they've been entirely positive. It's sort of indicative of the sea change that's happened here; suddenly people are working together, regardless of their other views, to achieve a single goal: a free Syria."[19]

Syrian uprising

The character of Amina was working on a book of her writings when she disappeared. She had gained popularity after her blogging about the Syrian opposition movement in the face of the government's crackdown on protests.[8] The media in Western countries first paid attention to the blog around May 2011.[13]

Her family was well-connected with relatives in the government and the Muslim Brotherhood, and being politically active was a "natural thing".[6] However, she described, "Unfortunately, for most of my life being aware of Syrian politics means simply observing and only commenting privately."[6]

Amina had been increasingly critical of the government in the months of the Syrian uprising. Her character wrote in late May of President Assad's regime: "they must go, they must go soon. That is all there is to say."[20] In April, Araf told how her father confronted two security agents who came to arrest her, threatened to rape her, and accused her of being involved in a salafist plot.[20]

When unrest broke out, her character described the protests as if she was there: "Teargas was lobbed at us. I saw people vomiting from the gas as I covered my own mouth and nose and my eyes burned...I am sure I wasn't the only one to note that, if this becomes standard practice, a niqab is a very practical thing to wear in future."[6]

Fictional account of threats and hiding

One of "Amina's" close friends, a real person named Sandra Bagaria, explained that Arraf had been hiding in “four or five different apartments in four or five different cities” across Syria since two young men appeared at her home in Damascus several weeks ago.[5] “Amina woke up in the middle of the night and saw her father outside talking to two young guys in their early 20s. I think they were there just following orders, they didn’t know what they were doing" Bagaria said.[5] The two men eventually left without arresting Araf al Omari, but, “Since that day, we agreed they might come back for her. It was only a matter of time.”[5]

In May 2011 Araf wrote that she had gone into hiding after her father reported that men had come looking for. In a post titled “Gone Underground,” her character explained that her father had told her: “They came back for you. This time, there’s nothing I can do. Go somewhere and don’t tell me where you are. Be safe. I love you.” Two weeks later, she blogged that she had been sent a fake message by someone posing as her partner, inviting her to a meeting at a hotel.[5] She also suspected her email accounts had been hacked.[20]

In the weeks before her reported abduction, Amina's had described traveling around Syria, sometimes in disguise and once riding inside a box on a truck, Bagaria said. At one point, the "Amina" wore an Islamic head scarf and posed as her father’s wife so that they could slip more easily through government checkpoints. “When she was traveling with her father, she was grabbed by a soldier who said, ‘What is a lovely young girl like you doing with an old man like him?’” Bagaria recalled being told.[5] Although purportedly in hiding and under threats of arrest, the character of Amina continued to write her blog.

Araf's character wrote that she would not flee Syria, and that activists had to fight for a more open and free country. In the blog, it read: "For an oppressive system to work, it doesn't need an enormous network of spies, of prisons, of torturers and so on....it needs just one thing: for the great majority of the people to actually believe that the state is mighty and vicious and to be afraid of it....And all we ever had to do was to stop being afraid. And the moment that we stopped being afraid, the earth shook. The regime cannot long survive if the people no longer are scared....They may be deadly but we are not afraid any longer. We are becoming free."[9]

On 5 June 2011 "Amina" wrote: "Today or tomorrow might be the last one for me; or, tomorrow might be the first day of the new Syria. Ben Ali is gone, Mubarak is gone, Saleh, they say, is gone as well. Assad has not much longer and I plan to see him go." She also explained her approach to nonviolence: "We went up north and helped spread sparks...we listened and we carried messages...And we heard people talking of frustration; we've been pushing so long, they said, and they kill us and we just die....Why not take matters in our own hands and let them know? Take up the guns which are buried, uses bombs and make revolutionary justice. I for one pushed back against that; we want a new Syria, a break from all that's come before. If we take power by killing and torturing, if we make summary justice and examples of Them, how are we different?"[5]

In April, before fictionally going in hiding she wrote,"The Syria I always hoped was there, but was sleeping, has woken up...I have to believe that, sooner or later, we will prevail."[6]

Fictional abduction

Report

The character of Amina Araf was reportedly kidnapped by three armed men when she was on her way with a friend to a meeting in Damascus to meet with protest organizers around 6:00 pm on 6 June 2011.[7] She was described as walking in the area of the Abbasid bus station near Fares al Khouri Street, on her way to meet a person involved with the Local Coordinating Committee, a real opposition planning group.[7]

On the blog, MacMaster posted as "Rania Ismail", Amina's fictional cousin, reporting the event: "Amina was seized by three men in their early 20s. According to the witness (who does not want her identity known), the men were armed...Amina hit one of them and told the friend to go find her father. One of the men then put his hand over Amina's mouth and they hustled her into a red Dacia Logan with a window sticker of Basel Assad."[8] Basel is the brother of president Bashar al-Assad.[8]

Response

The online response in the LGBT community, mainstream media, and social networking websites was rapid and extensive.[20] Facebook pages were set up on Monday evening calling for Araf's release.[8] The Free Amina Arraf Facebook page had already gathered over 10,000 members by the night of 7 June;[21] activists tweeted using the hashtag #FreeAmina. On Araf's blog, her cousin Ismail wrote they didn't know whether Araf was in a jail or held elsewhere.[8]

Now Lebanon wrote that Araf was one of the "ordinary, inspiring heroes of the Syrian revolution", known for "her fearless, blunt accounts of political turmoil in the country, and for her candidness about being gay".[22]

Brooklyn journalist Andrew Belonsky wrote an article for Death and Taxes magazine saying the "U.S. government should...use its power and influence to call for Arraf's release...Such a statement would of course prove that the U.S. remains committed to freeing citizens held overseas, just as we have in North Korea and Iran, but an official declaration would also send two indispensable messages: international governments must protect free speech, and democratic societies must respect LGBT equality."[23]

The U.S. State Department said 7 June that it was looking into the issue.[24]

Hoax revealed

In the wake of the kidnapping reports, questions were raised about the possibility that not only the kidnapping but Araf al Omari herself were an elaborate ongoing hoax.[5] Writer/editor Liz Henry was quoted in the "Middle East Live" blog run by The Guardian saying, "I started having doubts based on some of her patterns of talking about personas and fiction.... I would hate to have my existence doubted and am finding it painful to continue doubting Amina's. If she is real, I am very sorry and will apologize and continue to work for her release and support."[25] This possibility was also part of a discussion on the BBC World Service programme World Have Your Say including fellow blogger Andy Carvin, who expressed more confidence that she was real, but admitted the evidence was ambiguous.[26]

Reseachers found a prior blog written under the name of Araf al Omari called Amina's Attempts at Art (And Alliteration) which advertised itself as a mix of fiction and non-fiction: "This blog is ... ... where I will be posting samples of fiction and literature I am working on. This blog will contain chapters and drafts. This blog will have what may sometimes seem likely deeply personal accounts. And sometimes they will be. But there will also be fiction. And I will not tell you which is which. This blog will sample what I'm writing. This blog is not a diary. This blog is not about politics. This blog invites your comments."[27]

Stolen identity

On June 8, Jelena Lečić, a Croatian national and expatriate in the United Kingdom, issued a statement claiming that the pictures representing to be Araf al Omari were actually of herself, forcing The Guardian to expunge and replace photos that had been from the newspaper's past articles.[28][29][5][30] Lečić, who worked as an administrator at the Royal College of Physicians in London, was made aware of the issue by a friend, and appeared on the BBC's Newsnight to clarify that she had never known of the Syrian woman and that the usage of Lečić's personal images had been going on for some period of time.[31][32]

Admission

On June 12, The Electronic Intifada published evidence for its claims that "Amina" was the product of one or both of husband-wife team Thomas (Tom) J MacMaster and Britta Froelicher of Edinburgh, formerly of Atlanta, Georgia.[33] They initially denied this, but later that day the blog was updated with MacMaster's admission that he was the sole author of the blog. The blog post titled Apology to readers read: "I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on this blog are true and not misleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone – I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about. I only hope that people pay as much attention to the people of the Middle East and their struggles in this year of revolutions. The events there are being shaped by the people living them on a daily basis. I have only tried to illuminate them for a western audience." [3]

MacMaster explained in an interview that the kidnapping report was an "away message", to explain the absence of new posts while he was on holiday in Turkey.[34]

Identity of author

Thomas J. "Tom" MacMaster, was raised in Harrisonburg, Virginia[1] and in Bluffton, Ohio, USA.[citation needed] He graduated in 1994 from Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, with a bachelors degree in Middle Eastern studies.[35] He worked at an Atlanta-based tutoring service, teaching English to non-native speakers.[citation needed] He also contributed posts to "Al Jazeerah" (a website owned by Dalton State College educator Hassan Ali El-Najjar, not to be confused with the broadcaster Al Jazeera) from as far back as 2002 regarding his Palestinian solidarity activities in Atlanta outside of CNN headquarters.[36] He is a graduate student at Edinburgh University in Scotland.[1] He is a member of the university's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

His wife, Britta Froelicher, is a teacher, Ph.D. student and associate fellow at the University of St. Andrews.[37][38][39] She identifies as a Quaker and was from 2008 to 2010 a member of the American Friends Service Committee's Middle East Peace Education Program.[40] In 2008, she helped in a project and donation drive to resettle some 600 Iraqi families in Atlanta.[citation needed] MacMaster described his wife as "a great consultant" on the Amina Abdallah blog, but asserts that he was the sole author.[34]

Reception

MacMaster said that few would have paid attention to the blog if he had started it in 2010. Because of the political developments in Syria, people on the internet began to notice the blog. Attention increased after the blog character described having an experience with the Syrian state internal police.[10]

Monica Hesse of the Washington Post stated that upon discovery of the hoax, bloggers, women, gays and lesbians, and Syrians were unhappy, since a blog that claimed to be one of them was written by an American straight male. Hesse explained, "If [MacMaster] had not been so emotionally resonant, so detailed, so seemingly “real,” nobody would have cared so much when Amina disappeared, and nobody would have worked so hard to figure out what might have happened to her, and nobody would have learned that she was a pale man from Georgia. Which meant that, at least according to a chilling and narrow definition of what it means to be real on the Internet, Tom MacMaster was very good indeed at being Amina."[41]

Liz Henry, a BlogHer web producer who had recommended some of the posts made by MacMaster when he worked under the "Amina" character, said "He’s stealing the voice of a marginalized person. His way of describing what it’s like to be gay in the Middle East goes down smooth with people who have a progressive bent. Why did I jump to this blog — just because it was a person who shares some of my values?"[41]

Brian Whitaker of The Guardian said that the blog "was an arrogant fantasy" that "undermines, rather than illuminates, awareness of the realities of being gay in the Middle East."[42] Whitaker added that "Living a fantasy life on your own blog is one thing, but giving an interview to CNN while posing as a representative of the region's gay people appears arrogant and offensive, and surely a prime example of the "liberal Orientalism" that MacMaster claims to decry."[42]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Flock, Elizabeth; Melissa Bell. "‘A Gay Girl in Damascus’ comes clean", Washington Post, 12 June 2011.
  2. ^ "New evidence about Amina, the "Gay Girl in Damascus" hoax". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  3. ^ a b Posted by Amina A. (12 June 2011). "A Gay Girl in Damascus: Apology to readers". A Gay Girl In Damascus. Blogspot.com. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  4. ^ Flock, Elizabeth. "'Gay girl in Damascus' Syrian blogger allegedly kidnapped", Washington Post, 7 June 2011; accessed 7 June 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Mackey, Robert; Liam Stack. "After Report of Disappearance, Questions About Syrian-American Blogger", The New York Times, 7 June 2011; accessed 7 June 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Marsh, Katherine (6 May 2011). "A Gay Girl in Damascus becomes a heroine of the Syrian revolt". The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
  7. ^ a b c d "Syrian Lesbian Blogger Amina Abdallah Missing In Damascus". Lez Get Real. 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Hassan, Nidaa. "Syrian blogger Amina Abdallah kidnapped by armed men". The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
  9. ^ a b c d Associated Press. "Syrian-American gay blogger missing in Damascus", Beaver County Times, 7 June 2011; accessed 7 June 2011.
  10. ^ a b c Peralta, Eyder. "Man Behind Syrian Blogger Hoax: Something 'Innocent ... Got Out Of Hand'." National Public Radio. June 14, 2011. Retrieved on June 14, 2011.
  11. ^ Flock, Elizabeth; Melissa Bell. "‘Paula Brooks,’ editor of ‘Lez Get Real,’ also a man." Washington Post. June 13, 2011. Retrieved on June 13, 2011.
  12. ^ Broverman, Neal. "Lez Get Real Editor Is Straight Man." Advocate. June 13, 2011. Retrieved on June 14, 2011.
  13. ^ a b "'A Gay Girl in Damascus': how the hoax unfolded." The Telegraph. Wednesday June 15, 2011. Retrieved on June 14, 2011.
  14. ^ Anderson, Sam (7 June 2011). "'Gay Girl in Damascus' Author Abducted". Global Cocktails: the insider's guide to gay travel blog. PassportMagazine.com. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
  15. ^ "My father, the hero". A Gay Girl in Damascus. Blogspot.com. 2011-04-26. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
  16. ^ "Syria: Treatment and human rights situation of homosexuals", United Nations Refugee agency, 22 May 2009; accessed 15 June 2011.
  17. ^ a b "Lesbian blogger 'Gay Girl in Damascus' feared kidnapped in Syria", LGBTQNation.com, 7 June 2011; accessed June 7, 2011.
  18. ^ "Why I am doing this". A Gay Girl in Damascus. Blogspot.com. 2011-02-21. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
  19. ^ "Will gays be 'sacrificial lambs' in Arab Spring?". CNN. 2011-05-27. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
  20. ^ a b c d "'This had to happen eventually' | Al Jazeera Blogs". Blogs.aljazeera.net. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
  21. ^ Free Amina Arraf support page at Facebook
  22. ^ Nassar, Angie (7 June 2011). "A Gay Girl in Damascus blogger kidnapped". NOW Lebanon. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
  23. ^ ""Gay Girl in Damascus" Kidnapped: How Should U.S. Respond?". International Business Times. 2011-05-31. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
  24. ^ "'A Gay Girl in Damascus' Blogger Kidnapped at Gunpoint in Syria". FoxNews.com. 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
  25. ^ Siddique, Haroon; Paul Owen. "Middle East Live: Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and Middle East unrest – live updates", The Guardian, 8 June 2011.
  26. ^ McGivering, Jill. "On Air: Syrian blogger and Men Behaving Badly", World Have Your Say, 8 June 2011.
  27. ^ Amina Arraf's Attempts At Art (and Alliteration)
  28. ^ Chuck, Elizabeth (6/8/2011 2:23:44 PM ET). "Londoner says missing Syrian blogger stole her identity". MSNBC. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ "Syria: Mystery surrounds 'Gay Girl in Damascus' blogger abduction". 8 June 2011.
  30. ^ Steger, Isabella (8 June 2011). "Photos of Syrian-American Blogger Called into Question". Wall Street Journal.
  31. ^ "Syrian mystery of Amina Arraf: 'A gay girl in Damascus'". BBC. June 9, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  32. ^ Friedman, Uri (8 June 2011). "The Search for 'Gay Girl in Damascus' and a Stolen Photo". The Atlantic Wire.
  33. ^ "New evidence about Amina, the 'Gay Girl in Damascus' hoax", The Electronic Intifada.
  34. ^ a b Addley, Esther. "Gay Girl in Damascus hoaxer acted out of 'vanity'", The Guardian, 13 June 2011.
  35. ^ Garner, Marcus K. "‘Gay Girl' blogger a married man, Emory grad", The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 13 June 2011.
  36. ^ MacMaster, Tom (July 9, 2002). "Protesting CNN for its biased coverage". AlJazeerah.info.
  37. ^ Associate Fellows at University of St. Andrews
  38. ^ Britta Froelicher profile at FreshSight
  39. ^ Google cache of Froelicher's profile on LinkedIn
  40. ^ FW:masjidhamzah(Alpharetta)OUTREACH:Helping the 600 Iraqi Refugees, Yahoo Groups
  41. ^ a b Hesse, Monica. "‘A Gay Girl in Damascus’ displays ease of fudging authenticity online.", Washington Post, 13 June 2011. Retrieved on June 13, 2011.
  42. ^ a b Whitaker, Brian. "Gay Girl in Damascus was an arrogant fantasy." The Guardian. 13 June 2011; accessed 13 June 2011.
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