Qatar Is Covering Up Discriminatory Sex Cases Against Women Ahead Of The FIFA World Cup 2022

 Hundreds of discriminatory sex cases against women have been reported in Qatar ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2022. The country is also receiving backlash due to its human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) believes that the authorities have suppressed coverage of discriminatory sex cases against women to improve its image ahead of the tournament. 

Female migrant domestic workers affected by Zina law

In an exclusive report by Mirror, some 173,000 female migrant domestic workers in Qatar are “disproportionately” affected by “Zina” laws, which classify sex and pregnancy outside of marriage as a crime. 

Even rape victims can face prosecution if a suspect claims sex was consensual. Muslim offenders are given an additional penalty of floggings and up to seven years in jail. The law is based on Islamic legal tradition that treats any sexual contact outside of legal marriage as a crime.

Reportedly, in some cases, domestic workers are raped by their employers. In such cases, a woman can also be detained for the crime of Zina if she reports being raped but cannot prove the sex was not consensual.

Rothna Begum on Zina law

Rothna Begum, the charity’s women’s rights researcher, highlighted a case where a maid was raped by a man. However, the woman was prosecuted for Zina because the man told the police officers that the sex was consensual. 

Rothna Begum’s warning to female fans

Begum warned that female fans and migrant workers traveling to the World Cup may face discrimination because of such laws. Begum further said, “Prosecuting consensual relations and sentencing people to flog breaches international standards.” 

HRW on Zina law

HRW said there could be hundreds of such cases in Qatar. In 2012, HRW recorded 100 Zina convictions. However, the coverage stopped following global criticism. Begum said, “Just because reporting stopped, it doesn’t mean cases stopped.” 

There are no official statistics on Zina cases. However, HRW believes Zina laws exist, in varying degrees, across the Middle East.