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

Really lemon drop!!

It's Gilead.

And everyone is merrily flocking there.

I used to live in Qatar and can't recall the amount of times local men let doors slam in my face or cut in front of me in queues, while I was heavily pregnant too!

I was an expat in Qatar, it's not anything like most posters on this thread seem to think. Many local women work, they have a very high percentage of female graduates especially STEM graduates, they're not locked in a room somewhere.
I did feel safer there than the UK as a PP has said.

Another point...I lived in Qatar for several years and superficially had a good time, made good money. However there was Lways a sense of unease that if anything ever happened to me, I wouldn't get justice. I'm not sure what exactly I was scared of but I knew if I ever needed to police to investigate something, it wouldn't be done transparently or objectively, somebody would have 'wasta', somebody would bribe their way out of the situation. I knew a disproportionate amount of people to die over there (fellow expat professionals), mostly in road accidents and usually caused by locals driving dangerously, laws about which were never enforced. Dodgy autopsies, cover ups, victim blaming etc. I saw a Qatari man slapping a shop worker across the face in a Carrefour and nothing being done about it. 'Nannies' (or uneducated skivvies) were mostly treated contemptuosly by the employers and by the children, who were often (but not always) wild.

The Qatari women that I knew were very wealthy and worked in government jobs, so I can't comment about their rights. Some were very, very nice.

The problem was that Qatar was very much a very young, but very conservative country which was trying to mould itself into some kind of Western identity that just didn't fit its true values. The incongruence was uncomfortable and wore thin after a while. This World Cup will be the greatest example of the strange conflict of ideals.

Many women work? That's the bar we're setting for women's rights?

I mean I'd rather look at how victims of male violence are treated .Any stats on that?

MrsTerryPratchett I lived there and I'm sharing my experience, briefly. I'm not claiming it's perfect there just pointing out that neither is it as people who haven't spent time there seem to be imagining.
I'm not getting into a screaming match about it.

I did too and you're ignoring the fact that unmarried male Qataris have levels of freedom that are unimaginable for unmarried female Qataris.

There is a reason only young men are free to hang around hotels and hotel lobbies, not young women. You simply never see them.

A reasoj there are job adverts for female only drivers to drive young women around.

A reason that clinics still have separate male and female sections and entrances... With some women in the female one still covered up (their face, even their hands with black gloves in the quest for piety and respectability) .. because the doctors are likely to be male.

Incidentally you felt safe because as a western ex pat would have the force of the law come down hard on your behalf.

Incidentally you felt safe because as a western ex pat would have the force of the law come down hard on your behalf.

Unless it was against a Qatari!

I did too and you're ignoring the fact that unmarried male Qataris have levels of freedom that are unimaginable for unmarried female Qataris

I'm not denything this. I was pointing out - briefly so I hoped - that the experience of living there isn't exactly as many posters are picturing.
You're quite right that as a western expat I was protected, which is why it's silly that many posters who have never been to the region are claiming that it would be dangerous.

The problem was that Qatar was very much a very young, but very conservative country which was trying to mould itself into some kind of Western identity that just didn't fit its true values

This.

It's a tribal, islamic country. If people disobey Islam, it's abroad/in the desert/behind closed doors/out of sight.

Yes, very true

My h showed me a video of a Qatari speeding i to a drive through food place and hitting one of the attendants/servers who were made to stand out and take orders at customers windows .... The Qatari driver either lost control of the car, misjudged stopping distance or was on his phone, not looking up etc.

He knocked the attendant down.

When commented on by official channels later, the verdict was that the attendants needed to pay more attention.

Does pressure from other nations ever work, or is it nearly always rebellion from within that causes change?

If it's the latter, I don't see what not hosting the World Cup would do. People still flock to Dubai and their treatment of women isn't great either.

Everyone’s knows that women getting raped is not important. Only the gay men are important because women getting raped is so normal and they are foreign anyway so what does it matter.

Remember ladies
Gay men = important
Women = deserve a lashing for being born.

The forced genital examinations on all the foreign national women ordered off planes at the airport (in the hunt for the new mother who would have been imprisoned for getting pregnant outside marriage) has also been conveniently forgotten.

FIFA in this case is like the organisational equivalent of the "escorts" who take money to be defecated on etc by men in the ME.
I don't care who you are, what you do, what your history is, how you treat people, I don't care what happens .... As long as you pay enough money.

Except it's not FIFA getting shat on, it's everyone else.

I believe women are advised not to report rape. In Qatar.

They could arrested for formication etc.

It's a place where money trumps a lot. As a teacher there in international schools, it's not uncommon to be given end of term presents (bribes) costing 20k+

This, as you know, is typical and part of the reason why I left. I know of a Qatari woman crashing into an expat and in the end the police pressured the expat to apologise to the woman who had crashed into her. There are other, more personal examples which ended in tragedy that I won't talk about here in case their families are reading but there were a lot of cover ups and corruption.

Gosh this thread is bringing back so many memories!

Anyone ever been to a Qatari wedding? That was interesting!

From the report:

The concept of male guardianship, which is incorporated into Qatari law, regulations and practices, undermines women’s right to make autonomous decisions about their lives. Single Qatari women under 25 years of age must obtain their guardian’s permission to travel outside Qatar. While married women at any age can travel abroad without permission, men can petition a court to prohibit their wives’ travel. Qatari women are also prohibited from events and bars that serve alcohol, and unmarried Qatari women under 30 years old are not allowed to check into a hotel. Qatari women are also required to have guardian permission in order to work for some government ministries and institutions, and women who attend Qatar University face restrictions on their movements. Women cannot marry without their male guardian’s permission regardless of age, while men can marry up to four wives without needing even their current wife’s permission.

Fucking yikes.

It gets worse:

Under inheritance provisions, female siblings receive half the amount their brothers get.

No, but when listening to Mr. Q talk about the "female wedding" and "the male wedding" and i had to turn off.

Shame on FIFA and all the pundits being interviewed sitting over there in the sun and making sad faces (Lineker for one)

I believe a lot of ME countries are having issues with female/male birth rates because, with gender scanning or the possibility of gender selection in IVF, much fewer females are being born.

It used to be female infanticide, now it's before birth.

And David Beckham is like the living embodiment if someone who's sold their soul to the devil.

He's looked like some kind of Dorian Grey (bit more like the changing portrait than the untouched man) for quite some time now. It seems out of him.