This has never happened before: The LGBT activist Peter Tatchell is holding a one-man protest against queer hostility on the part of the emirate in the middle of the capital of Qatar. The police intervene quickly, but appear to be lenient. The timing of the action could not have been more critical.
Qatari police have broken up a one-man protest by prominent British LGBT activist Peter Tatchell in front of the Gulf State's national museum. In less than a month (November 20 to December 18) the soccer World Cup will take place in the emirate, the first in an Arab country. Tatchell, who organized a similar protest ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, stood with a T-shirt that read "
After 35 minutes, the police and state security units showed up. As videos circulating on the Internet show, the officers folded up the activist's poster. According to media reports, they then held Tatchell on site for almost an hour, questioned him and photographed his passport and other papers, as well as those of a man who was accompanying him. The 70-year-old was then released without charge.
The protest for LGBT rights is the first public of its kind in Qatar, probably also in the entire Gulf region. Tatchell reported on Twitter that nine police officers stood guard for exactly 49 minutes after his action on the sidewalk in Qatar's capital, Doha, was interrupted. During this period, the officials deleted photos and videos from a colleague's mobile phone. The police then informed the activist that he had to go to the airport and leave the country. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar.
Qatar's government, on the other hand, disagreed and reported that a "person standing in a roundabout" was the trigger for the police officers' deployment. The person was asked "warmly and professionally" to use the sidewalk. The government was "extremely disappointed by baseless allegations that were being spread by media companies without the relevant facts". No arrests were made.
In a video interview with the Doha News blog, run by two US journalists, Tatchell said shortly after he was arrested that the officers had been "polite" and that he was grateful for that. The activist also reiterated that he was "arrested" but not taken away from the protest site. "I was very, very nervous," Tatchell said of his one-man demonstration, fearing "maybe even physical abuse. But the officers didn't do any of that." In response to the government's comments, Tatchell tweeted: "It is a disgrace that the Qatari government is trying to divert attention from its vicious human rights abuses by misrepresenting a peaceful protester."
In a video on his own Twitter channel, Tatchell gave the reason for his demonstration: "This protest was intended to draw attention to the human rights violations in Qatar," especially the anti-queer attitude. But he also tried to "draw attention to the violation of the rights of women and migrant workers" and showed solidarity "with the courageous Qatari human rights defenders who cannot voice their point of view for fear of arrest, imprisonment and possibly even torture". .
Article 285 of the country's Criminal Code states: "Anyone who sleeps with a man over the age of 16 without coercion, coercion or subterfuge shall be punished with a prison sentence of up to seven years." Islamic law even allows flogging and the death penalty.
On the internet, however, there was also resistance to the British activist's protest from Western supporters of LGBT rights. The Australian-Arabic and homosexual author Elias Jahshan, for example, accused Tatchell on Twitter that the activist had previously declared in a signal chat group that he did not want to do "that stunt that you just pulled off in Qatar". "I know a lot of queer Qataris who would like to know why you weren't listening," Jahshan said. Protests "without the backing of the local community" would always "do more harm than good," the author continues.
Tatchell's demonstration came on the same day as Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, ranted about an alleged "unprecedented campaign" against the hosts. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) again raised serious allegations against the Emirate of Qatar on Monday. HRW accuses the police in the Gulf state of arresting and abusing queer people. Between 2019 and 2022, the organization documented six cases of severe and repeated beating and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody. The last case is said to have occurred in September. The Qatari government also rejected these allegations.
