Woman who was raped arrested in Qatar

[BeJayKayven]

For having sex outside marriage 😶

Dreadful story


BBC

[BravoHopeful]

Awful. Shocking. I have travelled all round the world, but not to the Middle East, and would really be unwilling to do so.

[annandale]

It sounds like a legal fudge will be done as in the earlier case of the Norwegian woman.

Thinking of all women who get raped in countries where the rule of law is used to oppress women.

[LittleMissBossyBoots]

I've just seen that she's now been convicted. Poor woman :(

[cressetmama]

Islam and Sharia law automatically presumes women guilty.

[Likeaninjanow]

I can't believe this goes on today. That poor woman

[situatedknowledge]

Truly dreadful.

[feckity]

So rape is pretty much legal in Qatar then? European women on holiday might get pardoned and sent home hopefully, but for local women if they ask for help after being raped they will get arrested and convicted. That's horrific.

[cressetmama]

In rape cases, in Qatar, the woman is charged with having sex outside marriage, which is punishable in Sharia law, even though she may be completely innocent of any form of provocation.

[80Kgirl]

I agree, I would never want to travel there. I am sure there are amazing things to see, but how could I willingly go somewhere with so much misogyny when I am a woman?

[Thefitfatty]

If it was a local woman raped in Qatar, or even another Arab, generally what happens is the family takes care of it. Which, depending on the circumstances of the rape, means the rapist ends up dead or exiled, the victim and rapist end up married, or the woman is "unmarriable" at least in Qatar. This is, of course, dependent on the level of education of the family. More western educated families would opt for the exile/murder route.

One of the biggest problems here is that it's a foreign woman versus a local. She doesn't stand a chance.

[Helmetbymidnight]

And we are having the World Cup there?
It's astounding.

[Thefitfatty]

Yes it is. And I say this as someone who lived there for 5 years and has many Qatari friends. It does have redeeming qualities. Just hard to think of them at the moment

[Limer]

Genuinely interested to hear of any redeeming qualities of such an unequal society.

[Thefitfatty]

In general there are people (men, women) trying to change things. It's inspiring. But it's a hard battle. And if you look at focuses on art, education and science, it's also inspiring

[feckity]

That's horrendous thefitfatty, I'm not sure I'd categorise any of those outcomes as 'taking care of it'. When I said rape was legal I was imagining the woman having zero incentive to report a rape, when those are the outcomes facing her.

[80Kgirl]

I just had a thought, does the foreign office caution British citizens against travelling to Qatar?

[Thefitfatty]

No.

[80Kgirl]

Seems odd, looking objectively at it.