One or two a year in prison, being flogged or even the death sentence are the punishments that sexual minorities have to live in fear of in Qatar, which is hosting the soccer World Cup.
Qatar’s intolerance has been shown in a harsh way to the whole world at the very beginning of the Games. The two-faced country has no intention of fulfilling the promises it made to the International Football Association, Fifa.
Qatar has previously said that it allows symbols supporting sexual minorities, but the truth has been different. Seven European countries gave up the One Love captain’s armband after threats from Fifa.
Belgium’s second shirt has also been in the teeth of Fifa, and rainbow products have been confiscated from spectators. British newspaper The Guardian figured it out already in the summer, that Qatar does not guarantee safe games for sexual minorities.
“Awarding the Games to Qatar was initially a big mistake”, the general secretary of the national Seta Gerttu Tarjamo tells.
“There are major human rights problems, some of which are related to women’s rights, some to the situation of the rainbow people, and some to the organization of the games themselves and the status of employees.”
“
“Awarding the Games to Qatar was initially a big mistake.”
Fifa declare human rights at the core of its activities. Beautiful words about the inclusion of human rights requirements in the application processes of prestigious competitions or the selection of competition hosts are just letters on paper.
“FIFA’s actions have seemed to be indifferent to human rights,” Tarjamo says and feels that the sport’s umbrella organization is putting its rainbow athletes in a difficult situation.
Both Fifa and the representatives of the competition organization have done everything they can to give a foolish image of themselves. FIFA president Gianni Infantino told during the games that he felt gay and claimed that he knows how it feels to be oppressed because he has been bullied because of his red hair and freckles.
A former soccer player acting as an ambassador for the Games Khalid Salman on the other hand, he said that homosexuality is damage to the brain.
According to Tarjamo, the rainbow organizations have held discussions with Fifa and the tournament organizers about, among other things, the rights of the rainbow people and have brought forward actions that are required to improve things.
“Fifa is well aware of these [ihmisoikeus]of insults. Here, it has clearly been more important to organize great competitions than to promote human rights,” Tarjamo sees.
“
“Fifa’s actions have seemed to disregard human rights.”
England’s Harry Kane and the captains of six other European countries will not wear the One Love captain’s armband, which supports sexual and gender minorities, at the World Cup as a result of pressure from the International Football Association Fifa.
Tarjamo believes that the World Cup in Qatar will remain a disgrace in the history of Fifa. He says directly that the organizers’ assurances that the rainbow people will not be arrested or harassed is not an act of human rights.
“Rather, it confirms the bad situation that exists there, if such exceptions have to be created”, he reasons.
“There hasn’t been any kind of gesture that Qatar would change the legislation or improve, for example, the position of the rainbow people. The human rights record of these games is pretty dark, and it’s hard to change it into anything else.”
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch by Eight countries where same-sex relationships are illegal will participate in the World Cup. That is a quarter of all 32 countries participating in the Games.
In addition to Qatar, the most problematic countries are Iran and Saudi Arabia, where gays are at worst threatened with the death sentence. In Ghana, Cameroon, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia “only” prison awaits.
“It is unclear whether the Sharia courts in Qatar could impose the death penalty. These have not been reported, but legally it is not clear whether this could happen,” says Tarjamo.
“
“The human rights record of these games is pretty dark, and it’s hard to change it into anything else.”
With gays in any case, it’s rough to be in Qatar.
The Guardian told just under the Games, that Qatar will not abuse homosexuals if they help the authorities track down other people belonging to sexual and gender minorities.
“In Qatar, for example, through online monitoring, those who could be rainbow people are monitored. People are arrested indiscriminately and held without charge,” says Tarjamo.
“Rainbow people in police custody have been repeatedly beaten and experienced sexual harassment. The persecution by the authorities is very extensive, and these are serious violations of human rights.”
Nasser Mohamed, a Qatari doctor and gay rights campaigner, told The Guardian that most gay people in Qatar don’t know each other. It’s safer.
“We know that this happens in countries with negative, criminalizing legislation and a very negative attitude atmosphere. People may be pressured to report others: it’s a way to prevent the creation of rainbow communities,” says Tarjamo.
“
“Rainbow people in police custody have been repeatedly beaten and experienced sexual harassment.”
Los Angeles Times sports reporter Kevin Baxter donned a rainbow mask at the World Cup media center in Qatar the day before the Games began.
Homophobia has been taken to extreme proportions in Qatar. Human Rights Watch told already years ago, how articles about sexual minorities have been censored from the Doha editions of The New York Times.
In these cases, there is an empty paragraph in place of the article and a text that mentions the removal of the article.
Saudi Arabia is interested in hosting the 2030 World Cup along with Egypt and Greece. Tarjamo does not warm to the idea of another Games in a desert state that tramples on human rights.
“That doesn’t sound terribly good. I hope that we are awake in that search and that we have already considered in advance which countries the games will be awarded to and what kind of conditions are related to the human rights situation.”
Tarjamo feels that financial interests often come before everything else. The hosting of the pageant does not seem to change politics, but rather to push totalitarian states, such as Russia.
“Perhaps awarding the Games is not the way to improve human rights situations. Individual athletes who dare to speak up have brought some hope. It’s great that this is happening, but the responsibility shouldn’t be on them,” says Tarjamo, turning his gaze towards organizations and sports federations.
Read all the World Cup stories here.
#World #Cup #football #Qatar #homophobia #extremes #human #rights #violations
