Qatar’s FIFA World Cup ambassador and former soccer player Khalid Salman said homosexuality is “harm of the mind”, in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF on Monday.
The interview, filmed in Doha less than two weeks before the start of the tournament, was immediately interrupted by an official from the World Cup organizing committee.
+ LGBT activists protest at the FIFA Museum before the World Cup in Qatar
During the interview, Salman was discussing the issue of homosexuality being illegal in Qatar. Salman told ZDF that being gay was “haram”, meaning prohibited under Islamic law. “It’s damage to the mind,” Salman said.
As many people must travel to Qatar for the World Cup, “let’s talk about gays,” Salman said. “The most important thing is that everyone will accept that they come here. But they will have to accept our rules,” he said, adding that he was concerned that children might learn “something that is not good.”
Salman was a Qatari football player in the 1980s and 1990s. He participated in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and was selected as one of the ambassadors for the tournament’s host country. Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup from 20 November to 18 December.
His remarks drew strong criticism from human rights activist Rasha Younes, a senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, who called Salman’s comments “harmful and unacceptable.”
“The failure of the Qatari government to combat this false information has a significant impact on the lives of #LGBT residents of Qatar,” she said on Twitter.
This comes as the awarding of the football tournament to Qatar was heavily criticized due to the human rights situation in the Gulf state and the treatment of foreign workers.
Earlier this month, the governing body of world football, FIFA, urged nations participating in the 2022 World Cup to focus on football once the tournament begins.
FIFA confirmed to CNN that a letter signed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura was sent to 32 countries participating in the global final on Thursday, but did not disclose the contents.
“If Gianni Infantino wants the world to ‘focus on football’, there is a simple solution: FIFA could finally start tackling serious human rights issues instead of brushing them under the rug,” said Steve Cockburn, Chief Executive Officer of economics and economics from Amnesty International. Social justice.
“A first step would be to publicly commit to the establishment of a fund to compensate migrant workers before the tournament starts and ensure that LGBT people do not experience discrimination or harassment. It is astonishing that they have not yet done so.
“Gianni Infantino is right to say that ‘football does not exist in a vacuum’. Hundreds of thousands of workers were abused to make this tournament possible and their rights cannot be forgotten or discounted.
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