IPA Newspack
  • Home
  • now
  • politics
  • business
  • markets

IPA /

IPA Special

IPA Special

Qatar’s World Cup Catch-22 Situation Over LGBT Access

By James M Dorsey

When Egyptian football legend Mohammed Aboutreika came out swinging against homosexuality in late 2021, he touched a raw nerve across the Muslim world. The tit-for-tat between Aboutreika and supporters of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights laid bare a yawning gap.

For Aboutreika and many in the Muslim world, the issue is adhering to their values and rejecting attempts to impose the values of others.

For supporters of LGBT rights and LGBT soccer fans, at stake most immediately is LGBT people’s right to attend the 2022 Qatar World Cup without fear of discrimination or legal entanglement because of their sexuality. Longer-term, it’s about ensuring recognition of LGBT rights, including social acceptability, inclusivity, and non-discrimination. Solving the immediate problem may be the lower hanging fruit. However, it may also open a pathway to what is realistically achievable in the middle term.

The reality is that what may be realistically possible is at best akin to US President Bill Clinton’s application to gays in the US military of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell” rule or Indonesia’s de facto ‘live and let live’ principle. That may not be satisfactory, but it may be the only thing that, for now, is possible without putting LGBT communities at risk by provoking public hostility and backlash.

To be sure, autocratic Middle Eastern regimes like Saudi Arabia and Egypt often target LGBT communities for domestic political gain. In addition, the United Arab Emirates, perhaps the Middle East’s socially most liberal society, recently backtracked on LGBT-related issues. The trick in campaigning for LGBT rights is avoiding playing into the hands of autocrats while maintaining the pressure.

Simply attempting to impose recognition is unlikely to produce results. Instead, a more realistic strategy is to devise ways to stimulate debate in Muslim-majority countries and encourage social change bottom-up to ensure public buy-in.That worked to a degree as human rights groups, and trade unions used the World Cup to pressure Qatar to make changes to its labour regime. LGBT rights are in a different category and relate more directly, rightly or wrongly, to perceived religious precepts.

As such, what worked with labour rights, even if human rights groups would like to see more far-reaching reforms, is unlikely to produce similar results when it comes to LGBT rights. Going to extremes, Saudi Arabia, amid a push to encourage tourism, launched “rainbow raids” this month on shops selling children’s toys and accessories.

Authorities targeted clothing and toys, including hair clips, pop-its, t-shirts, bows, skirts, hats, and colouring pencils “that contradict the Islamic faith and public morals and promote homosexual colours that target the younger generation,” said a commerce ministry official.

Earlier, the kingdom, like the UAE, banned Lightyear, a Disney and Pixar animated production, because of a same-sex kiss scene, and Disney’s Doctor Strange in the Universe of Madness, in which one character refers to her “two mums.”

The UAE ban appeared to contradict the government’s announcement in late 2021 that it would end the censorship of films. The country’s Media Regulatory Office said it would introduce a 21+ age viewer classification policy instead. However, that wasn’t evident when the office tweeted an image of Lightyear, crossed out with a red line.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly charged that Egyptian police and National Security Agency officers “arbitrarily arrest” LGBT people and “detain them in inhuman conditions, systematically subject them to ill-treatment including torture, and often incite fellow inmates to abuse them.

With the World Cup only months away, Qatar is caught in a Catch-22. In a country where the few gays willing to speak out describe an environment of social and legal discrimination, Qatari authorities would like to see the World Cup finals as an interlude of ‘live and let live.’

Qatari officials have insisted in recent years that LGBT fans would be welcome during the World Cup but would be expected to respect norms that frown on public expressions of affection irrespective of sexual orientation.

Paul Amann, the founder of Liverpool FC’s LGBT supporters’ club Kop Outs, met in 2019 with Qatari World Cup organizers before travelling to Doha with his husband to evaluate the situation.“I’m very satisfied that their approach is to provide an ‘everyone is welcome’ ethos that does include respect, albeit through privacy. I’m not sure if rainbow flags generally will ever be accepted ‘in-country,’ but maybe in stadia,” Mr. Amann said upon his return.

Aboutreika put Qatar on the spot when he asserted in November 2021 that “our role is to stand up to this phenomenon, homosexuality, because it’s a dangerous ideology and it’s becoming nasty, and people are not ashamed of it anymore. They (the Premier League) will tell you that homosexuality is human rights. No, it is not human rights; in fact, it’s against humanity.”

The Qatari parliament and state-aligned media, imams in Saudi mosques, Saudi diplomats, and Al-Azhar, the citadel of Islamic learning in Cairo, rallied to reiterate Aboutreika‘s condemnation despite his allegedly Islamist leanings.

Aboutreika’s remarks were in response to Australian gay footballer Josh Cavallo who revived the sexuality debate when he declared that he would be afraid to play in the Qatar World Cup because of the Gulf state’s ban on homosexuality and harsh legal penalties ranging from flogging to lengthy prison terms.

One of the few players to discuss his sexuality publicly, Cavallo expressed his concern a month after coming out as gay. Cavallo said other footballers had privately expressed similar fears. What is evident in the sexuality debate is that few people, if any, will be convinced by arguments raised by the opposing side in what amounts to a dialogue of the deaf. Both sides of the divide feel deeply about their positions.

For proponents of LGBT rights, the challenge is to develop strategies that may contribute to change rather than insisting on a path that is more likely to deepen the trench lines than produce results for the people it is really about: the LGBT community. (IPA Service)

By arrangement with the Arabian Post

Politics

Victory of Bal Thackeray’s Hindutva, claims Shinde

June 27, 2022
Happening Now

Key Uddhav aide Raut summoned by ED for ‘money laundering’

June 27, 2022
IPA Special

There Is Little To Justify India’s Coal Shortage

June 27, 2022
IPA Special

Central Trade Unions Get Ready To Fight New Rules For Workers

June 27, 2022
IPA Special

Right-Wing Takeover In Andalusia Is A Setback To Spain’s Coalition Govt

June 27, 2022
IPA Special

Fear And Sycophancy Stalking Present India Under BJP Regime

June 27, 2022
IPA Special

Akhilesh Failed To Give Proper Leadership In Campaign For Bypolls

June 27, 2022
IPA Special

In Power Battle In Maharashtra, Ideology And Dynasty Are In Collision

June 27, 2022
IPA Special

India’s Neighbouring Economies Are Facing Severe Balance Of Payments Crisis

June 27, 2022
Politics

Owaisi hits out at Akhilesh after SP’s loss to BJP

June 27, 2022
Happening Now

Radisson Guwahati closes all bookings till June 30

June 27, 2022
Politics

Simranjit Mann credits Sangrur win to Bhindranwale

June 27, 2022
Politics

Rumblings in AIADMK grow as EPS camp convenes meet

June 27, 2022
Happening Now

Eknath Shinde has late night meeting with Fadnavis

June 26, 2022
Happening Now

Rajasthan anti-corruption body notice to Union minister

June 26, 2022
Happening Now

Cong raises points about SC clean chit to Modi

June 26, 2022
Happening Now

Gujarat ex top cop, activist held within a day of SC verdict

June 26, 2022
Happening Now

Ram Gopal Varma in trouble over tweet on Droupadi Murmu

June 26, 2022
IPA Special

Droupadi Murmu Is All Set To Become The Next President Of India

June 25, 2022
IPA Special

Battle Lines Are Drawn In Maharashtra But For Uddhav, It Is Really Tough

June 25, 2022

An appeal

The legacy of IPA, founded by Nikhil Chakravartty, the doyen of journalism in India, to keep the flag of independent media flying high, is facing the threat of extinction due to the effect of the Covid pandemic. Only an emergency funding can avert such an eventuality. We appeal to all those who believe in the freedom of expression to contribute to this noble cause.
Click here to learn more

Share

Reply

  • 0
More on IPA

There Is Little To Justify India’s Coal Shortage

June 27, 2022 3:15 pm | IPA Staff

By Nantoo Banerjee It is a matter of concern that India, sitting over the world’s fifth largest proven coal reserves of well over 111 billion...

IPA Special

Central Trade Unions Get Ready To Fight New Rules For Workers

June 27, 2022 3:13 pm | IPA Staff

By Dr. Gyan Pathak Had the Modi Government not been undergoing some fresh resistance from the unemployed youths for yet another disastrous policy experiment in...

IPA Special

Right-Wing Takeover In Andalusia Is A Setback To Spain’s Coalition Govt

June 27, 2022 1:45 pm | IPA Staff

By Eoghan Gilmartin “A very hard blow.” Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez couldn’t mask his disappointment at the resounding defeat for his Socialist Party (PSOE)...

IPA Special

Fear And Sycophancy Stalking Present India Under BJP Regime

June 27, 2022 12:08 pm | IPA Staff

By Amulya Ganguli A feature of the present ruling dispensation at the centre is the fear that it has generated even among the rich and...

IPA Special

There Is Little To Justify India’s Coal Shortage

in IPA Special
Jun 27, 2022   ·  

Central Trade Unions Get Ready To Fight New Rules For Workers

in IPA Special
Jun 27, 2022   ·  

Right-Wing Takeover In Andalusia Is A Setback To Spain’s Coalition Govt

in IPA Special
Jun 27, 2022   ·  
Follow us on
Up Next: Laxmi Jadhav Makes History By Becoming The First Woman Bus Driver In Mumbai
©2020 -2021 India Press Agency, All Rights Reserved
Newspack by India Press Agency
Posting....
logo
  • Home
  • now
  • politics
  • business
  • markets