“Qatar Preventive Security Department forces arbitrarily arrested lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and subjected them to ill-treatment in detention,” according to a report published on October 24 by Human Rights Watch.
The human rights organization says it collected testimonies about “six cases of serious and repeated beatings and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody” since 2019, of which the last “as recently as September 2022”.
“As Qatar Prepares to Host World Cup, Security Forces Detain and Abuse LGBT People […] apparently with the certainty that these abuses will neither be reported nor prohibited”, explains Rasha Younes, a specialist in LGBTQI issues within the organization. And to add: “The whole world is watching what is happening.”
Otherwise, “a group of women [dont treize Australiennes] who were forced to submit to invasive body searches at Doha airport in 2020 initiated legal proceedings against Qatari authorities this month” with Australian justice, reports the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hurra, who adds that, on Sunday, October 23, they spoke out to demand that we ensure “the safety of female fans during the FIFA World Cup”.
“The real motives”
These new charges fall less than a month before the start of the World Cup on November 20. Aware of the consequences they risk having on the country’s reputation, the Emir Tamim ben Hamad Al-Thani reacted by denouncing “an unprecedented smear campaign”, reports the Qatari site Al-Araby Al-Jadid. “No other host country of a World Cup has suffered the like”, adds the newspaper quoting the emir.
Devant le Majlis Al-Choura, elected assembly created in 2021 to restore the image of the country, he denounced a campaign of “misinformation and double standards”, despite the “good will” in the face of the criticism that Qatar would have shown at the start. “We even considered that constructive criticism could help us to change certain aspects that needed it.” But now, “everyone is wondering what the real motivations and reasons behind this campaign are”.