Human Rights Watch report
Allegation: Qatar’s police mistreat queer people
10/24/2022, 12:17 p.m
New serious allegations against the World Cup hosts: In the run-up to the major football event, the Qatari police apparently arbitrarily arrested and mistreated people from the LGBT community. This is according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) again raises serious allegations against the Emirate of Qatar. Almost a month before the start of the highly controversial soccer World Cup, HRW accuses the police in the Gulf state of arresting and abusing queer people. Between 2019 and 2022, the organization documented six cases of severe and repeated beating and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody. The last case is said to have occurred in September.
“Just a few weeks before the World Cup, LGBT people are raising the alarm about the attacks by the security forces,” said HRW expert Rasha Younes, who also called on the world association before the tournament started on November 20: “The Qatari government should stop these attacks immediately end and FIFA should urge the Qatari government to ensure long-term reforms that protect LGBT people from discrimination and violence.”
Arbitrary arrests on the street
According to the report, the arrests are said to have occurred arbitrarily due to external appearances. As HRW writes, the police are said to have made so-called conversion therapy a condition for the release of imprisoned transgender women. The aim is to change or even suppress a person’s sexual orientation or self-perceived gender identity. Therapy should be administered at a government-sponsored “behavioural medicine” center.
According to Human Rights Watch, four transgender women, a bisexual woman, and a gay man reported being held in an underground prison in the capital, Doha, by members of Qatar’s Interior Ministry. They were verbally abused and even subjected to physical abuse. It is said to have been slaps, punches and kicks. One woman told HRW that she was beaten until she passed out.
Arrest because “women imitated”
A transgender woman says she was arrested on the street by security forces for “mimicking women”. In the police car, she is quoted in the HRW report as saying, they beat her until her lips and nose bled and kicked her in the stomach. Then an officer reportedly said, “You gays are immoral, so we’ll be the same with you guys.”
The list of allegations goes even further. The security officers also extorted confessions and denied the detainees access to legal counsel, family members and medical care. All of those interviewed by Human Rights Watch said the police eventually forced them to sign promises that they would “stop immoral activities. But no charges were made.
A Qatari government official said the allegations were “clearly false”. Qatar “does not tolerate discrimination against anyone and our policies and procedures are underpinned by a commitment to upholding human rights for all.” There are no “conversion centers” but there is a rehabilitation clinic that supports people with behavioral disorders such as drug addiction, eating disorders and mood disorders. Homosexuality is forbidden in Qatar. The tournament organizers and FIFA had repeatedly emphasized that all fans were “welcome” at the World Cup in Qatar. According to the “Spiegel”, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to address the safety of queer fans during the tournament on a trip to Qatar with DFB President Bernd Neuendorf.