Women in Qatar

[OMG12]

We’ve heard a lot about the abhorrent treatment of gay people in Qatar and the appalling treatment of migrant workers who have built the World Cups infrastructure but precious little about the treatment of women (is it because we don’t have our own pressure group?). But just read the report Human Rights Watch report from March 2021and horrified that the World Cup is being held there (for some reason won’t let me link it). Basically womens rights are entirely dependent on men.

AIBU to think the media need to report more on this, why celebrate our lionesses on one hand and with the other give a prestigious event to a country where women are treated like this? It’s

I don't think the world cup should ever have gone there in the first place. It was a bad decision but we are where we are. Hopefully the fact there are female officials for some games will be an eyeopener to the oppressed world.

Typed, having finished work early today, snuggled up to another woman on the sofa with a G&T! 🍸👭

Which particular countries are you thinking about. I don’t watch a lot of sport tbh because many sports are full of corrupt activities. Therefore, unless the event constantly hits mainstream media it is not on my radar

World Cup: 2014 Brazil, 2018 Russia

Olympics: 2008 China

Why have people not boycotted every host actually as no place is perfect

Why the sudden burning desire to cancel Qatar? Have you thought about this?

@PrincessJanet I’m trying to say we can’t say we are any better in some regards. UK guys will be knobheads to all women whereas locally they’re selective. It’s still absolutely shite in both cases but people are attacking Qatar whilst claiming to be whiter than white.

I’m also sick of people saying it shouldn’t be here, whilst agreeing it wasn’t exactly straight down the line awarding the 2018/2022 hosts. I’m glad it’s in a region that’s never hosted before and opening up minds to different cultures

@StarlightLady here here! 🍷

I wonder how many people mentioning Qatar are happy to have a holiday in Dubai.

Obviously meant hear hear…. I’ve had one too many it would seem

@Crumpetloveliness - 💋

Or from Qatar.

I was an expat in ME (not Qatar) and I would imagine you are mixing in certain circles and not seeing a lot of what goes on.

Well, I don’t think China should ever be awarded any events. Their human rights record is terrible. I try to steer clear of buying made in china products as much as possible for this very reason and would never visit.

Russia - well quite frankly the west have continuously fuck up there, trying to continue glasnost when clearly a tyrannical madman was at the helm, probably through fear of reigniting the Cold War, largely being appeasers, maybe people have learned to be more vocal about these things after all if we don’t learn from history we are fools I’m sure you will agree. I agree though until recently Russias abuses have really been brushed under the carpet, hopefully that will not be an issue going forward. I think there’s an ever growing understanding of the atrocities carried out in Russia which is a positive step forward.

Brasil is extremely complex many of the issues lie with the Catholic Church there, and trust me. I’ve been very very vocal over the abuses of the Catholic Church since primary school.

If summary, I think human rights abuses are becoming an increased focus in the mainstream and might be why Qatar has had more focus than some of the other countries, I’m just grateful about this

what’s your take?

Well I certainly wouldn’t. I don’t agree with a lot of their laws so wouldn’t visit and I generally can’t see the attraction

@Crumpetloveliness
would you need a husband’s permission to get a job?

my own country, the United States, has a laundry list of human rights violations. People frequently say they would never travel here and I completely understand. I know that day to day life is actually quite idyllic for many of us. I also understand why people don’t want to travel here and why they want to boycott. (The one defensible thing I can say is that our failings are mostly, though not exclusively, in implementation and not in law. )

In the UK we still have a long way to go. People have thrown themselves under racehorses to get where we are. The UK is not perfect, nowhere in Europe is, but we have gone further and we should have respect for women and gay people living under far more oppressive regimes.

What do you mean by 'gentlemanly'?

no you aren't being unreasonable, any country that criminalises/bans homosexuality will also likely have highly oppressive policies towards women , lack both religious and political freedoms and show racism to minorities. However, we are often hypocrites from a political and economic perspective (look at our countries close ties with Saudi for eg. including the late Queens relationship to the King). That said, countries do change (look at what the women in Iran are doing, albeit at huge personal cost) and perhaps the opening up of people's view of the world through access to social media etc may help?

So many immigrant deaths in Qatar for a game of football. DS worked in the ME, deaths from working in the heat were common.

Our Welsh minister Drakeford blathered on about workers rights, human rights, LGBTQ rights while sat in the stadium the other day. Women rights weren't mentioned. Stupid man

I don't know. Are the Qatari women protesting?

There's been plenty in the media about Iranian women's protests about wearing a hijab.

Then ironically in Southern India muslim women are suing the government for the right to wear them as they are banned from being worn in universities over there.

The hijab point is about choice surely. In Iran women are not given the choice not to wear the hijab. In Southern Indian Universities women are not given to wear the hijab.

Surely the only person who should be allowed to decide if a woman covers her hair or doesn’t cover her hair is that woman.

I totally agree with you.

I was asking if the Qatari women were protesting?

They probably daren’t or lack a galvanising force! Usually there is a focal point to gather people together, the proverbial straw. This has obviously most recently happened. In Iran

I was an expat in most of the GCC and was ways treated better than I was in many other countries.... but let me rephrase that by saying I was a white , western woman .
Saying that though I have Kuwaiti, Emirati, and Qatari female friends who are respected in their communities and are very successful in their fields. I also have friends of other nationalities who have worked successfully in Qatar etc, so it's not all bad.
Unfortunately a lot of women do still face barriers but often from their own families rather than country imposed 'rules'

They don't need to protest, all of the men are so gentlemanly.

That's not ironic. Women being told what to wear to avoid severe penalties is the issue, not the actual clothing.

This thread hasn't even touched on them dragging a pile of women off planes at the airport and performing forced/non consensual intimate/genital examinations while searching for a (third world) ex pat who abandoned anes born baby because she was so shit scared of being jailed and punished etc for getting pregnant unmarried there.

*new born

It's apartheid for women, for the subjugation and control of women.

It all deeply appalls me.