Gays, deaths and other popular news stories about Qatar

One night, a few years ago, I was out in a fancy bar, drinking cocktails, celebrating a gay friend’s birthday.

In the middle of the party, he hugged me with a sad face.

“I have a problem he said. I need a new boyfriend.”

“Thought you had one?” I asked, laughing.

“Well”, he said, “The Australian one I had when I just came to Doha was too crazy. This one now, Pilipino, is way too religious!” 

Now, unless you have been recently hiding underground in some Putin style personal bunker, you probably couldn’t help but read and hear all those endless accusations of Qatar, which have hit this small country like a tsunami because of the World Cup. And, having heard and read all that, you would not believe the scene I just described was in fact, happening in Doha, Qatar.

Do gay people work and live in Qatar? The answer is yes. Plenty do, and they enjoy living here, on their great expat salaries.

Do they advertise their gayness by snogging in Starbucks? Well, no. Because, and-here is a newsflash for the ignorant ones-it is a conservative Muslim country. So yes, they do have different rules here, their own culture, which is quite different from yours. Does that mean they should not be allowed to host football? Well, no.

Before you start shouting about LGBT+ rights, remember that homosexualism was illegal in Germany in 1994. That’s quite recent if you think about it. And Germany is not even a Muslim country. 

It is totally understandable that people are desperate to jump on any opportunity to get noticed where and however possible. Peter Tatchell came to Doha to protest LGBT rights, got stopped and questioned by the police and as he himself then admitted in his interview video to Doha News that the police were polite and respectful enough to him. However, all over the news it was immediately announced he was detained.

People shouted how brave he was and demanded that Peter was freed immediately. Freed from where? He was never imprisoned.

Another popular news story and something people mention in comments under every article about Qatar and the World Cup at the moment is the “6,500 deaths” since Qatar won the hosting of the world cup. 

Now, this one is fascinating, since that number quoted is the total number of people from specific countries, who were living in Qatar in the past ten years and died. 

Only 37 deaths were directly related to the construction of the world cup stadiums. Death records, as it states in this Guardian article were not categorized by occupation. 

Expatriate population of Qatar is about 88%, with (let’s take) Indians representing the largest community of around 700,000. In ten years, some of them happened to die. Now, do your maths.

Just to point out another important factor here, while we are on deaths and health issues here. 

Everyone in Qatar has access to the government healthcare. Absolutely everyone. My own life was saved here for free. The care is exceptionally good. In the USA as far as I know, if you happen to be poor with no insurance you are screwed. In Qatar, every single person will be admitted and treated. And should you need an important treatment, you will get seen quickly and not wait for 6 months like some of my family members in the UK.

Finally, my favorite one at the moment is that video of two British women whose lives “changed forever” after they were examined by professional female nurses at Qatar airport back in 2020, when a newborn baby was placed in a plastic bag and left to die in a trash bin at Doha airport.

Watching these two “victims” over-act was akin to watching Meghan Marckle perform in that Oprah show. Cringeworthy.

Nobody focuses on the fact that someone tried to kill their baby. Which thankfully, survived. Yes, women from 10 flights were subjected to examination by nurses at the airport which yes, was unbelievable and stupid and, I am sure, quite humiliating.

But I guess if you think you could sue and get as much as possible ( I heard the Australian women suing were hoping for 10 million dollars each) you would go on TV and scream this was a “sexual assault” and claim that you felt you were raped, wouldn’t you. 

Whenever people misuse such strong words as rape, I feel it is an insult of the real victims or rape.

It always amazes me how the traditional official media outlets can present information and affect the public by some simple, yet effective methods. For example, this article by The New York Times

Qatar Expresses ‘Regrets’ but Defends Invasive Exams of Women on 10 Flights

 

Why is the word regrets in quotes? Small thing isn’t it. But immediately gives the reader the feeling of injustice and insincerity of Qatar.

“But the government of Qatar said its officials acted because a newborn girl had been found buried under trash, but alive, at Hamad International Airport. Qatar called it an “egregious and life-threatening violation of the law,” and said officials at this airport had never dealt with such a situation before.”

Well, yes. What’s not true in that statement? I imagine that’s exactly how it happened. The people in charge made a stupid, unprofessional decision as they simply panicked when they found out about what really was an attempted murder of a baby.

Now, should the whole country be continuously trashed over and over again for that incident? Should BBC be filming someone who says she assumed when armed police showed up on her plane (which was parked on tarmac in Doha airport) they were being kidnapped? 

May I ask why would she assume that? Because she was in an Arabic country?

Does that not sound like an openly racist assumption which BBC somehow missed in their pre- World Cup anti-Qatar frenzy?

I would not mind if the countries who attack Qatar were so ethical themselves. But that’s not the case.

Australia, one of countries who keep shouting the loudest about human rights issues in Qatar, holds illegal immigrants without trial for an average of 689 days. I am simply wondering, were it them hosting the event right now, would the world be pointing that out in every media channel? I feel that maybe not.

So yes, I am getting really fed up with double standards, exaggeration and well, racism.

Football, from what my limited knowledge of it tells me, should be about inclusivity. About international friendship. About fun. As we used to say in old soviet childhood days….Mir, drujba, festival! (Peace, friendship, festival!)

And what is going on now is getting ridiculous. It is an open, targeted, biased attack on the country which has been my home for the past ten years.

I will let you in on a secret. Expat life in Qatar is pretty good.

Yes, I cover my shoulders when I go out in shopping malls. Out of respect. 

Yes, gay people don’t walk around in outfits like “The only gay in the village” in Little Britain. 

(Note: An advice to football fans: what not to wear when visiting Qatar)  

That doesn’t seem to bother many of them who seem quite happy to come here on good salaries and then, having left, probably offer their stories to The Telegraph or The Guardian.

Because, as I recently noticed, those guys will accept any story as long as it follows the current lets-boycott- Qatar mood.

Just how desperate must The Telegraph be to give a platform to some woman who happened to have lived in Doha back in 2006 for one year, to write her story which they then ever slightly twisted to show things they wanted to show? 

This piece is simply embarrassing.

One purpose of the article of course, from the Telegraph’s point of view, is to pour more dirt on Qatar. Another is the writer’s personal claim to fame: Look how great and kind and generous I was. And, while everyone else employed helpers, I did my own dusting. Here are some photographs of me. Just because. Here is me reclining on a sofa, don’t I look pretty, and there is me… well, just standing outside.

She then is quoted suggesting- with no grounds whatsoever- that speculations about police brutality don’t surprise her.
 

‘I lived in Qatar and the speculations of police torture are no surprise - they bring back memories' 

What torture? What speculations? Why is an opinion of a random person who happened to visit Qatar for one year back in 2006 even used as any proof of some speculations?

I honestly have no idea what the agenda is behind these endless attacks. And don’t tell me it is to bring light to the issues. Nobody cares about the issues most of the time. All they care about is publicity, opportunities, money. 

Now, the UK media is a different story. They always are openly biased, and I had already learned that during the Karabakh 2020 war. It is just difficult to understand what their goal is, at least for me, what the agenda behind this media war on Qatar is, but there clearly is one. Is it the gas?  Don’t they get enough, or the price too high? Or is it simply the childish jealousy that they didn’t get to host the world cup? 

I won’t attempt to analyze it. But to anyone with any brain or intelligence, please stop listening to this and stop reading news articles which are obviously biased in one direction- for whatever real reason may be.

I can hold hands with my husband in public in Doha. That’s if I want to, which I find a little cheesy, so I don’t.

And my gay friend found another boyfriend in the end. Made a lot of money and now has his own business in the UK.

If you want to watch the football, watch it. Let it be about peace, friendship, festival! And if you don’t want to watch it well, don’t come. We are busy enough here as it is, bracing ourselves for an invasion of football fans.