Women at Doha airport were removed from flights and forced to undergo invasive internal inspection in an ambulance on the tarmac

I DO NOT have sympathy for a woman who abandons an infant in a toilet

I do.

I was horrified to read about this and cannot understand how anyone would defend it.

Did they find the mother? I hope they didn't.

*She in fact did leave a baby to die alone in a toilet

You have absolutely no idea if that was the case*

She said it was a fact. Therefore it must be true...

Although no capitals. If it’s on the internet it’s true if you put fact in capitals after a statement. FACT.

She in fact did leave a baby to die alone in a toilet

You have absolutely no idea if that was the case

None

Some monumentally ignorant and disgusting comments on this thread.

And I pray (well, I’m an atheist so I hope) that you don’t have children when you see nothing wrong with child abandonment.

And you are putting words into my mouth here. I do call out the cruelty of the MENA and how they imprison mothers for the non-crime of having children out of wedlock.

I support organisations that work to get those women and their babies out of prison. I also support the local embassies in supporting runaway maids from their countries in getting out of Qatar.

I DO NOT have sympathy for a woman who abandons an infant in a toilet. The baby could easily have died due to her actions.

But the issue here is that Qatar allowed unrelated women to be sexually assaulted. There were plenty of other ways to track down the mother, it was so needless.

There is a thread in chat or somewhere as well with lots of women saying well what did they expect etc

Really weird and depressing.

Do you remember the woman I think she was Dutch who was raped and ended up in prison for sex outside marriage?

I had a look on the FCO advice for the country and the only warnings were about alcohol, and modest dress.

I really think the FCO should have a specific section for risks around sex/ rape etc. To think about whether to report or not etc. And highlight if it's riskier for women there. It's a massive oversight and can only assume it's not there for political reasons, or because it's mainly written by men and they don't think about the risks which are greater for women.

For those saying abide by rules or it's your own fault, that's exactly it. The only rule these women broke, was to be a woman.

We've ignored the plight of women globally at our own peril. Patriarchy is a cancer that will always spread

Absolutely. When one woman isn't free, none of us truly are.

This story is so awful, so terrifying. I'm at a loss for words.

[quote SoloMummy]@RufustheSniggeringReindeer
They have chosen to take a flight that lands in that country. Choice. That means they abide by their rules. Very simple. The same as men expecting to walk around the airport shirtless would be challenged. Their rules. Abide or fly via other routes.[/quote]
I've chosen to take a flight that lands in that country for transit somewhere else. That usually means getting off a plane, going to another gate, maybe having a wee and leaving again. It doesn't mean I've signed up to sexual assault FFS.

I think some people are confusing FWR with AIBU.

I will say it again. I cannot believe on FWR that women are victim blaming to such a terrible extend. The women on that plane - all innocent of any crime, were forced to undergo a procedure that they gave no consent to. All of the women will have been terrified of what would happen to them if the objected. They were stripped of all their human rights.
Those women on this board saying - their country their rules? The very people who made those rules will be rolling back your rights next..you going to sit down for that to? Or is only women like you who deserve protections?

That’s a chilling thought Whatever, but I suppose if one follows the logic that their rules are all that matter then it wouldn’t be impossible.

What if they have discovered a pregnancy in an unmarried woman during these examations? It's quite possible a woman from a less brutal country could have been in the early stages of pregnancy but only there for a couple weeks. If they had found out about a pregnancy from a urine test or examination, would they have also used the opportunity to throw her in jail rather than let her fly home?

I think the "their rules" comment isn't somebody condoning what went on in Doha, it's an observation of the horrific realpolitik at play in some parts of the world...

Some might perhaps reflect on this again when/if air travel returns to normal and people have a choice of which airlines to fly on and which airports/countries to choose to transit through, but ATM some have no choice but to transit through the Gulf airports.

Wow. So many posters condoning sexual assault on women.

Its an incredibly weird thing to be defending in my opinion

But it’s not “their rules”. It isn’t written in law that if a baby is abandoned all suspected women must be examined. They have just chosen to do that. This thread is certainly illuminating though.

My 11yo and 13yo DDs would have been examined presumably.

Their country their rules? Think about what you are saying here.

'. The same as men expecting to walk around the airport shirtless would be challenged. Their rules. Abide or fly via other routes'

By having a couple of fingers shoved up their arse?

If you say so...

And these women hadn't broken any rules, had they.

This thread and another one loads of women saying this is aok. What do they expect etc.

They say women in the article, presumably all females over puberty would have been examined. Still ok? Some of the women may not have had smears/ penetrative sex etc. Still ok?

Those choices aren’t always simple though.

Hub airports are highly politicised, their building and situating is often geo political. Passengers have no say, or indeed a choice in that.

Even so, there are international treaties that even the most human rights averse countries have to abide to

Why are you defending them with such a vigour?

I'm surprised at the posters saying any women who fly through these centres have signed up to be digitally raped.

If so then really there needs to be information provided from the airlines outlining what exactly women have signed up for if they book that flight.

[quote SoloMummy]@RufustheSniggeringReindeer
They have chosen to take a flight that lands in that country. Choice. That means they abide by their rules. Very simple. The same as men expecting to walk around the airport shirtless would be challenged. Their rules. Abide or fly via other routes.[/quote]
You can say it as much as you like

I still think it’s ridiculous...i always will

BUT as i say, leave the airport and absolutely game over

Can you imagine what the result would have been if it was a trans person being hauled out the ambulances with the women?

Being Qatar, not sure that would have ended well for them - especially if they had been able to be stealthy in appearance.

Dragging women off a plane for medical analysis is completely unacceptable. Why I dont fly through the mid east - I dont want to support repressive regimes. Feel sorry for the aussies with little choice though, as I understand Qantas, their national carrier has abandoned international flights (except a few government subsidised flights for those desperate), and they have little option but to travel this route.