Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell is ARRESTED in Qatar
Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell is ARRESTED in Qatar while staging ‘first ever LGBT protest in a gulf state’ – 26 days before World Cup begins
- Tatchell staged a one-man protest in Qatar’s capital of Doha on Tuesday
- He held a placard in support of LGBT Qataris ahead of the 2022 World Cup
- Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, and its human rights record has been criticised
- Representative for Tatchell said he was arrested, his whereabouts is unknown
- Click here for all the latest World Cup 2022 news and updates
British human rights activist Peter Tatchell has been arrested in Qatar today for staging a public LGBT protest, 26 days before the start of the 2022 World Cup.
The protest was ‘the first-ever public LGBT+ protest in any gulf state,’ according to a representative of the veteran protester.
Tatchell’s arrest is proof that the country is using the World Cup as a sportswashing project to enhance its image on the world stage, the spokesman from the Peter Tatchell Foundation said.
The current whereabouts of Tatchell is currently unknown, they added.
Tatchell, who had staged a similar protest ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, stood for more than hour wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘#Qatarantigay’ and holding a placard that read ‘Qatar arrests and subjects LGBTs to conversion.’
Two uniformed police officers and three plain clothes officials arrived at the scene. They folded up his placard and took photos of Tatchell’s passport and other papers, and those of a man accompanying him.
British human rights activist Peter Tatchell has been arrested in Qatar today for staging a public LGBT protest (pictured), 26 days before the start of the 2022 World Cup
Police left after shaking hands with Tatchell, who remained on the sidewalk, but his representative said he was later arrested.
His arrest came on the same day as Qatar’s emir raged against what he called an ‘unprecedented campaign’ of criticism over his country’s hosting of this year’s football World Cup, saying no other host nation has ever faced the same scrutiny.
FIFA awarded the World Cup to Qatar in 2010 and it has since spent tens of billions of dollars on preparations ahead of the competition that kicks off on November 20.
But the energy-rich Gulf state has faced constant scrutiny over its treatment of foreign workers as well as its poor record on LGBTQ and women’s rights.
Homosexuality is illegal in the conservative Muslim country, and can be punished by up to three years in prison. The country’s laws also allow for gay Muslims to be punished with the death penalty, although there are no known cases of this.
Some football stars have raised concerns over the rights of fans travelling for the event, especially LGBT+ individuals and women, whom rights groups say Qatari laws discriminate against.
Organisers of the World Cup in Qatar, the first to be held in a Middle Eastern nation, say that everyone, no matter their sexual orientation or background, is welcome, while also warning against public displays of affection.
Footage from the site showed that Tatchell was approached by a Qatari police officer, who appeared to take issue with what was written on the sign. The officer then folded the placard up and handed it back to Tatchell. The footage did not show Tatchell being arrested
Tatchell, 70, staged his one-man protest outside the National Museum of Qatar in Doha on Tuesday, with pictures showing him holding a placard supporting Qatari LGBT people. The placard read: ‘Qatar arrests, jails & subjects LGBTs to ‘conversion”.
Footage from the site showed that Tatchell was approached by a Qatari police officer, who appeared to take issue with what was written on the sign.
The officer then folded the placard up and handed it back to Tatchell. The footage did not show Tatchell being arrested, which is presumed to have happened later.
‘There can be no normal sporting relations with an abnormal regime like Qatar. It is a homophobic, sexist and racist dictatorship,’ his statement said.
‘Qatar cannot be allowed to sportswash its reputation. It is using the World Cup to enhance its international image. We must ensure that the tyrant regime in Doha does not score a PR victory.
Tatchell said he ‘did this protest to shine a light on Qatar’s human rights abuses against LGBT+ people, women, migrant workers and liberal Qataris. I am supporting their brave battle against tyranny.’
He also criticised FIFA, football’s world governing body, for handing Qatar the coveted honour of hosting the tournament in 2010.
‘Despite FIFA saying that discrimination will not be tolerated, if a Qatari footballer came out as gay, he would be more likely to be arrested and jailed than be selected for the national team. That’s discrimination and against FIFA’s rules,’ he said.
‘FIFA has failed to secure change in Qatar. There have been no legislative reforms on LGBT+ or women’s rights. Improvements for migrant workers have been patchy at best. FIFA is letting Qatar evade many of its pledges when it was granted the right to hold the World Cup,’ he added.
FIFA awarded the World Cup to Qatar in 2010 and it has since spent tens of billions of dollars on preparations ahead of the competition that kicks off on November 20
Tatchell also highlighted human rights issues with Qatar in his pre-prepared statement. He noted that ‘women must get permission from a male guardian to marry, work in many government jobs and to study and travel abroad.’
Also, he said, ‘over 6,500 migrant workers have died since Qatar was given the right to host the World Cup,’ and that ‘many families are still waiting for compensation.’
On the conditions faced by the workers, he said they ‘complain of unpaid wages, overcrowded slum hostels and being refused permission to change jobs.’
Qatar’s World Cup organisers have stepped up assurances in recent weeks that all fans would be ‘welcome’ at the World Cup. FIFA has said that LGBTQ rainbow flags would be allowed in and around stadiums.
England’s Harry Kane is one of several captains of European teams who have said they will wear ‘OneLove’ arm bands at World Cup games to highlight rights concerns. Tatchell said that this was not enough, and criticised the armband.
‘The OneLove slogan is too vague to have any serious impact,’ he said. ‘It is not a proper rainbow flag but looks like a deliberate hodgepodge of colours to avoid the controversy of being seen to endorse LGBT+ equality.’
He also hit out at Britain’s Football Association for being ‘gullible to believe Qatar’s promises’, in relation to assurances given to LGBT fans travelling to the country for the tournament.
‘Qatar has repeatedly broken its pledges about the rights of migrant workers. Why should we trust that they’ll keep their promises about LGBT+ fans?’ he said.
MailOnline has contacted the British Foreign Office for comment on Tatchell’s arrest.
Tatchell (pictured in 2020, file photo) has a long history of campaigning on human rights issues, having begun his activism in 1967
According to the Foreign Office advice page on travel to the country: ‘Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar. Private life in Qatar is largely respected but any intimacy between persons in public can be considered offensive, regardless of gender, sexual orientation or intent.
‘Host authorities have stated that ‘everyone is welcome’ at the World Cup. They have publicly confirmed that there will be no restrictions on non-married friends or couples (including LGBT people) staying in the same room.’
Australian-born Tatchell has a long history of campaigning on human rights issues, having begun his activism in 1967. Most famously, he twice attempted to arrest the Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe in 1999 and again in 2001.
In 1973, he was arrested and interrogated by the Stasi in East Germany when he staged the first LGBT protest in a communist country.
On the opening day of the 2018 World Cup in Moscow, he staged a protest outside the Kremlin over President Vladimir Putin’s involvement in the kidnapping, torture and murder of LGBT people in Chechnya.
News of Tatchell’s arrest came shortly after Qatar’s emir lashed out at what he said was an ‘unprecedented campaign’ of criticism against his country.
Qatar’s emir (pictured right shaking hands with FIFA President Gianni Infantino) has raged against an ‘unprecedented campaign’ of criticism over preparations for this year’s football World Cup, saying no other host country has ever faced the same level of scrutiny
‘Since we won the honour of hosting the World Cup, Qatar has been subjected to an unprecedented campaign that no host country has ever faced,’ emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said in a speech.
‘We initially dealt with the matter in good faith, and even considered that some criticism was positive and useful, helping us to develop aspects of ours that need to be developed,’ the emir told Qatar’s legislative council.
‘But it soon became clear to us that the campaign continues, expands and includes fabrication and double standards, until it reached an amount of ferocity that made many question, unfortunately, about the real reasons and motives behind this campaign,’ he said.
Energy-rich Qatar has spared no expense in its grand plans for the first World Cup in the Arab world, promising the country will enjoy a lasting legacy.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said the Qatar World Cup, the first in an Arab nation and which is expected to attract at least one million foreign fans, will be the ‘best ever’.
But since being awarded the honour of hosting the tournament, the country’s human rights record and treatment of migrant workers has been firmly in the spotlight.
Some have called on figures in football to boycott the tournament over its record.
Qatar outlaws sex outside marriage and homosexual sex, which can be punished by up to seven years in prison. Pictured: Workers walk along the marina near the Katara Towers in the Qatari coastal city of Lusail on October 23
In a report released on Monday, Human Rights Watch said police in Qatar have arbitrarily detained and abused members of the LGBTQ community ahead of the World Cup next month. Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state.
HRW said it had ‘documented six cases of severe and repeated beatings and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody between 2019 and 2022’.
The most recent case was in September, the US-based rights group said.
Four transgender women, one bisexual woman and one gay man all told how members of the interior ministry’s Preventive Security Department detained them in an underground prison in Doha.
There ‘they verbally harassed and subjected detainees to physical abuse, ranging from slapping to kicking and punching until they bled’, HRW said.
‘One woman said she lost consciousness. Security officers also inflicted verbal abuse, extracted forced confessions, and denied detainees access to legal counsel, family, and medical care.’
One Qatari bisexual woman said she was beaten until she ‘lost consciousness several times’.
Camel-mounted royal guards patrol outside the government palace in Doha on October 23. Qatari officials said no ‘conversion centres’ operate in the country, though it does have a rehabilitation clinic that supports individuals suffering from behavioural conditions such as substance dependence, eating disorders and mood disorders
The report added that a Qatari transgender woman told how she was held once for two months in an underground cell and once for six weeks.
‘They beat me every day and shaved my hair. They also made me take off my shirt and took a picture of my breasts,’ she said.
She said she had suffered from depression and was afraid to go out in public since.
In all cases, the detainees were forced to unlock their phones and had contact information on other LGBTQ people taken, HRW said.
Sex outside marriage and homosexual sex are both illegal in the conservative Muslim state, and can be punished by up to seven years in prison.
But none of those detained said they had been charged.
HRW said the six appeared to have been held under a 2002 law that allows for up to six months’ detention without charge if ”there exist well-founded reasons to believe that the defendant may have committed a crime,’ including ‘violating public morality’.’
A Qatar government official said the allegations were ‘categorically and unequivocally false’.
‘Qatar does not tolerate discrimination against anyone, and our policies and procedures are underpinned by a commitment to human rights for all.’
The official said the government has held talks with HRW and other critical groups, but the latest ‘claims were not brought to our attention until they were first reported in the media. If Human Rights Watch had contacted us, we would have been able to disprove the allegations.’
The official said the lack of notice given by HRW ‘compromises their self-proclaimed commitment to reporting the truth.’
Visitors take photos with a FIFA World Cup sign in Doha. HRW called on FIFA, football’s world body, to press Qatar to launch reforms that protect LGBT people
The rights group called on the government in Doha to ‘put an end to security force ill-treatment against LGBT people, including by halting any government-sponsored programs aimed at conversion practices’.
The Qatari official insisted that no ‘conversion centres’ operate in the country, though it does have a rehabilitation clinic that supports individuals suffering from behavioural conditions such as substance dependence, eating disorders and mood disorders.
HRW called on FIFA, football’s world body, to press Qatar to launch reforms that protect LGBT people.
Meanwhile, French World Cup-winning hero Zinedine Zidane said Monday it was ‘time to forget the controversies and focus on the football’ at the upcoming World Cup, despite calls to boycott the tournament.
Zidane said the focus should now be on the sport ‘for all those fans who just want to watch the football’.
‘In any case, it doesn’t matter what we say, it will never be enough, or true or the right thing to say,’ added Zidane, who was accompanied by his parents, his wife and children as he attended the unveiling of his own wax figure in a Paris museum.
Zidane, who helped lead France to glory at the 1998 World Cup on home soil, was an ambassador for Qatar’s successful bid to stage the tournament.
When the tiny country was named as host by FIFA in 2010 he declared himself ‘very pleased’ with the decision.
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