Queer Qatar

Boy dancer, Afghanistan

FIFA chief Sepp Blatter made headlines last week when he suggested that gay visitors in Qatar to witness the 2022 World Cup should refrain from any behaviors that could get them killed. Homosexual behavior is illegal in Qatar (pronounced cutter).

Rather than thanking Blatter for his heads up, homosexual groups are crying out in protest and indignation.

Juris Lavrikovs, communications director for the European branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, said the comments were "very unfortunate and have left people deeply offended."

"I think they should come out with a strong statement and not just wash it away," Lavrikovs told The Associated Press. "We are talking about a very basic human right that is being violated."

"This is not a joke, this is a matter of life and death to people," Lavrikovs said. "Qatar and more than 70 other countries in the world still criminalize individuals for homosexual relationships, and some countries even punish them by death sentence.

"It's disappointing to see that an organization that is promoting the game, which in its statutes condemns discrimination of any kind, is coming out with comments like this."

"Sepp Blatter jokes about the risk to gay visitors in 2022, but Qatar's anti-gay policies are no laughing matter," British human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said.

Former NBA player and openly gay John Amaechi said on his website that "FIFA has endorsed the marginalization of LGBT people around the world."

Amaechi also demanded an apology from FIFA and urged other associations to distance themselves from Blatter's comments.

"Anything less than a full reversal of his position is unacceptable," he said.“He’s really saying don’t even ‘look’ gay, re-closet yourself and pretend the ties and love and affection you have for your partner or even some random bloke you might meet on your travels are gone for the whole time you’re in Qatar.”

Herman Ouseley, chairman of Kick It Out, a British campaign group for equality and inclusion in soccer, said he expected better from someone in Blatter's position.

"It was all frivolity and laughter but it's a serious business -- people's existence he has ridiculed," Ouseley told the AP at the launch of his group's annual review at the British Parliament.

"We can't have that from the top of the world governing body -- you've got to show leadership because you've got to influence the standards of behavior required and then you've got to enforce it when there's a failure." Ed Connell, Campaigns Officer for the Gay Football Supporters Network, said: “While we’re working with the FA to get people to understand there is an issue with homophobia around football, Sepp Blatter is simply not getting the issue.”

Rather than chastise Blatter for making what some consider intemperate remarks, I  think he should be applauded for potentially saving gay people from some pretty terrible consequences. I looked into Qatar's laws and history. 

"Article 201 of the Qatari Penal Code punishes sodomy between consenting adults (irrespective of sex) with up to five years of imprisonment." In 1995, an American citizen in Qatar was sentenced to receive 90 lashes during a 6-month prison term for "homosexual activity," according to the U.S. Department of State's report on human rights practices for 1996. Apparently those that fear the lash may be given the option of accepting hormone therapy for their gay condition.

Even Qatari royalty are not immune from the draconian prosecution. The Crown Prince of Qatar should be stoned to death for being gay, according to Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim fundamentalist scholar who is based in Qatar. These allegatons appear in the Middle East news magazine Aljazeera. Dr Qaradawi was defended by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, in a Guardian comment  Aljazeera quotes Dr Qaradawi as saying: "The scholars of Islam, such as Malik, Ash-Shafi`i, Ahmad and Ishaaq said that (the person guilty of this crime) should be stoned, whether he is married or unmarried." According to Aljazeera, this is the verdict of Dr Qaradawi in response to allegations that Qatar's 25 year old Crown Prince Tameem Bin Hamad Al-Thani was spotted at the popular London gay night club, G.A.Y. The prince and his male partner, Michael Heard, were allegedly banned from G.A.Y. for a month following a fight.

An interview with a gay man arrested in Qatar who ended up spending four months in jail in a "nightmare."

So the reality is, we live in a world where a lot of really awful things still happen. FIFA and Sepp Blatter are not agents of societal change, they are in the business of football. The World Cup and whatever liberal stand they may take will not affect the terrible repression of women, gays and minority sects that exists throughout the arab world and africa, where punishment for the banned sexual orientation is rising exponentially and often punishable by death. We are talking about a culturally ossified region. Where homosexuality is practiced at probably the same frequency as anywhere else but kept under wraps. So I think he is correct in advising athletes and tourists to keep it in their pants. But you have to wonder why they would award the cup to such a brutal, repressive regime in the first place?

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"How can you fall in love if you can't see her face," said 29-year-old Mohammed Daud.  "We can see the boys, so we can tell which are beautiful."

In other news from the middle east, American company DynCorp admits to hiring young boys dressed as girls to dance at the company farewell party in Kunduz. In September 2009, the State Department fired eight security guards at the U.S. embassy from the security contractor ArmorGroup North America for what a watchdog group described as a "Lord of the Flies" environment at the guards' living quarters. Allegations included lewd behavior and sexual misconduct.


It is a typical and long standing practice in Afghanistan for men to take such boys for sexual property. Wikileaks has lifted the veil on the practice of bacha bazi or "boyplay." Looks like the americans are learning new tricks from their middle eastern hosts.