Photo credit: Reuters
The Peter Tatchell Foundation staged a peaceful protest on Tuesday, 3 December, against the state visit to Britain by the emir of Qatar. The foundation cited Qatar’s appalling abuse of the human rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, and migrant workers.
Canary reports that thirty protesters chanted, “Qatar is anti-gay. SHAME!” as King Charles and the emir travelled down the mall in the Irish State Coach.
Pliny Soocoormanee, executive director at the Peter Tatchell Foundation, said: “The King and Emir looked right at our protest and clearly took in messages on our placards. Qatar is a homophobic sexist dictatorship and should not have the red carpet rolled out for its tyrant.”
Peter Tatchell, director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, said: “Keir Starmer and King Charles should not have rewarded the emir with the honour of a State Visit while his regime continues to victimize women, LGBTs and migrant workers. Feting the Emir is collusion with tyranny.
“The Qatar government is a police state dictatorship. It’s guilty of systemic homophobia, sexism and the suppression of workers’ rights and basic freedoms like free speech and the right to protest.
“This State Visit sends the wrong message – that the UK prioritizes trade and investment over human rights. The UK should be challenging Qatar’s human rights record and seeking the release of political prisoners, not rewarding its ruler with royal pageantry and red carpets.”
In Qatar, LGBTQ+ face harassment on the street, online entrapment by the police, arrest, three years jail and potentially the death penalty. Qatar has secret gay conversion centres where they can be detained and subjected to abusive attempts to turn them straight.
Women must get the permission of a male guardian to marry, study, travel abroad, work in many government jobs and access reproductive health care.
Over 6,500 migrant workers have died since Qatar was given the right to host the World Cup in 2010. Many families are still waiting for compensation. Migrant workers complain of unpaid wages, overcrowded slum hostels and being refused permission to change jobs. Those who protested against these abuses have been arrested and deported.
Two weeks before the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Peter Tatchell became the first person to stage an LGBT+ rights protest in Qatar, holding a placard outside Doha’s National Museum that read: “Qatar arrests, jails & subjects LBBTs to “conversion.” He was detained and interrogated by the authorities before being ordered to the airport to depart Qatar.
