logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2023
35m 9s

EP 1 - The Unicorn

CBC
About this episode
It's 2011, and the Arab Spring is being documented by a heady mixture of up-to-the-minute citizen reporting, tweeting and blogging. One particular voice begins to stand out — the Gay Girl in Damascus — Amina Arraf. On her blog, Amina describes herself as an out lesbian with a passion for human rights and her homeland. Amina’s evocative writing describes her ... Show More
Up next
Nov 2023
EP 2 - My Father, The Hero
As the conflict in Syria escalates, Sandra begins to worry for her girlfriend Amina’s safety. Amina’s blog has grown in notoriety, attracting the interest of Western media like The Guardian and NPR. But as a newly-minted media darling, Amina is under added surveillance and increa ... Show More
34m 43s
Nov 2023
EP 3 - The Trustworthy Fortune Teller
The unthinkable has finally happened. Amina has been taken by the regime and is missing. In Montreal, Sandra is determined to pull on every lever possible to find Amina. Other journalists and locals are doing the same before it’s too late. 
29m 7s
Nov 2023
EP 4 - On the Face of It
As forces around the internet unite to try to find Amina, more doubts begin to pile up. Especially when it's revealed that the photos on Gay Girl in Damascus, of a beautiful young woman with chin-length brown hair, belong to another woman entirely. 
32m 34s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2023
Weekend Listen: Gay Girl Gone
Of all the young revolutionaries in Syria during the Arab Spring, Amina is different. An out lesbian in a country where homosexuality is illegal, she bravely documents her life on the blog Gay Girl in Damascus. Her candid posts attract readers from around the world, and soon she ... Show More
36m 12s
May 2021
Women of the Arab Spring
A decade after the uprisings that changed the political landscape of many countries in North Africa and the Middle East, Kim Chakanetsa looks at what impact the Arab uprisings had on the lives of women in Egypt and Syria. Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-American author and commentat ... Show More
27m 26s
Nov 2023
The Kill List Introduces: Gay Girl Gone
Of all the young revolutionaries in Syria during the Arab Spring, Amina is different. An out lesbian in a country where homosexuality is illegal, she bravely documents her life on the blog Gay Girl in Damascus. Her candid posts attract readers from around the world, and soon she ... Show More
36m 33s
Oct 2022
Tuer les femmes : une histoire mondiale (1/2)
Depuis quelques années et grâce aux militantes féministes, le terme de féminicide a fini par rentrer dans le langage courant pour désigner un crime tristement banal et répandu : le meurtre de femmes parce qu’elles sont femmes. S’ils existent depuis la préhistoire, partout dans le ... Show More
40m 6s
Jun 2020
Femmes et féminismes : des histoires en tout genres
Dans l’imaginaire collectif, la France aurait consacré sur son territoire la pleine l’égalité entre les genres, et les pays musulmans seraient des espaces oppressifs où règnent de façon continue le sexisme et l’homophobie. Evidemment, les rapports femmes-hommes au Maghreb et au M ... Show More
36m 39s
Oct 2022
Ep 5 - Narrating the Middle East
Can we understand a culture and a region when we don’t read its authors? And what nuances do we miss when we read them in translation? How are authors and poets from the Middle East reaching new audiences? I speak to poet Zeina Hashem Beck, from Lebanon, living in California, abo ... Show More
40m 28s
Mar 2022
The Rise and Fall of #MeToo in Egypt: Part 1
A warning: This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence and assault.In the summer of 2020, a 22-year-old Egyptian woman made the difficult decision to publicly call out her harasser on social media. In a moment of rage, she picked up her phone and typed out a post that w ... Show More
33m 16s
Aug 2023
Women in Beirut: Telling our stories
Kim Chakanetsa talks to two Beirut-based creatives who made it their mission to tell women’s stories. Joana Hadjithomas is a Lebanese artist and director. Her work has been exposed at the Victoria and Albert museum in London and at the Guggenheim in New York. Her latest movie, Me ... Show More
27m 18s
May 2019
Amandla Stenberg: My Authenticity is my Activism
In a live appearance at UCLA’s Royce Hall, actress, social media disrupter and feminist Amandla Stenberg talks about the importance of vulnerability and finding strength in your identity. She shares her journey of becoming comfortable with her authentic self and loving who she wa ... Show More
19m 43s