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‘Harry Potter’ Fan Missing In Syria, Twitter Account Vanishes

By Viraj Mahajan
Published on: 01:13 PST, Dec 5, 2016

In the late November, J.K. Rowling got to know a Syrian girl, Bana, who adores the entire Harry Potter world. The British author even sent her the ebook series to read. However, following a recent turn of drastic events in Aleppo, Syria, Bana is nowhere to be found. Her active Twitter account no longer exists.

According to a report from CNN, Bana Alabed, a young girl living in the east Aleppo in Syria, tweeted in November about how much she enjoyed reading the first book of the bestselling author, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Bana’s Twitter handle is run by her mother, Fatemah, who tweeted to Rowling about her daughter and revealed that she had watched all the fantasy movies and shared her daughter’s wish to read the books in their entirety.

After reading the heartwarming tweet from Bana, the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them writer replied that she should read the entire Harry Potter series.

Furthermore, a member of the author’s team contacted Bana about how they could send all seven books from the series to the war-torn state.

When the team could not found a way to make it possible, they managed to send electronic copies of the Harry Potter books to the family living in Syria. After receiving the digital copies, Bana’s mother tweeted out her daughter’s thanks to the British author along with a sweet video.

Fatameh also regularly used to share their life in rebel-held Syria and Bana’s take on the ongoing conflicts between the government and the civilians.

According to Mashable, a couple of hours after tweeting a photo of Bana and her family reading the newly arrived Harry Potter books, Bana or possibly Fatemah tweeted a photo of a body of Bana’s friend who was killed by a bomb in Syria.

“It’s too early to choose a favorite character,” Fatemah told to CNN. “Especially today, many bombs distracted her.”

Since September, Bana and her mother have been sharing images and their observations of their life in Syria with their over 100,000 Twitter followers. As of her family, they are last known to be in Aleppo and are trying very hard to enjoy the gift from the beloved author.

Apart from this, it was also reported by several Twitter users that the account is actually fake and it is a propaganda tool against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But Fatemah labeled those accusations as “disappointing” in her interview.

“All the words come from the heart. All are the truth,” she said.

A recent report from BBC News reveals that people on Twitter are wondering about the fate of the young girl and her family. There had been no updates on her family after revealing they were reading the books in bits and pieces because they are constantly distracted by the ongoing bombings.

At this moment, it no longer possible to see any of her tweets.

Her last post read, “We are sure the army is capturing us now. We will see each other another day dear world.”

The tweet was signed by Fatema. The phrase #WhereIsBana has been trending on social media ever since her account was suspended, and people became concerned about her whereabouts.

J.K. Rowling and her magical world of Hogwats has given hopes to millions of children around the globe. At this time of ongoing war in the Middle East, the only comfort Bana and her family will possibly get is from reading the tale of a wizard who is destined to save the world.

About 250,000 people are thought to be trapped in the besieged Aleppo. People are finding ways to look for some hope to live, much like Bana hopefully got from the Harry Potter books.

[Featured Image by Hassan Ammar/AP Images]

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