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    • Workers build a sign in Doha, Qatar.

Soccer and Human Rights: The World Cup in Qatar

Teddy Witt ’24
At its best, the FIFA World Cup represents the coming together of nations and cultures to celebrate the world’s most popular sport.
This makes it all the more shameful, then, that this year’s World Cup is being held in Qatar — an honor won back in 2010, when the Qatari bid triumphed over several, much more qualified alternatives in what is widely acknowledged to have been a corrupt and bribery-laden process. Qatar, a tiny oil-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula, has a long history of human rights abuses targeted at the most vulnerable members of its society: women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and the migrant laborers who do much of the nation’s work. While the aim of Qatar’s government has been to “sportswash” the country, legitimating the monarchy and its actions, the press around the World Cup has brought these abuses to
light.

Women’s rights in Qatar are chiefly curtailed by the country’s male guardianship laws. Under this system, Qatari women must seek permission from male relatives before making many crucial decisions about their own lives such as marrying, traveling, pursuing an education, or, in some cases, finding a job. Potentially the most abhorrent policy is the statute permitting husbands to stop providing for one of their up-to-four wives if that woman is deemed to have been “disobedient.” In other words, if, in the view of the state, a Qatari woman works, travels, leaves the home, or refuses to have sex with her husband without a “legitimate reason,” she loses the right to his material support — a despicable policy made even more abhorrent by the fact that Qatari women are often unable to join the workforce without a male relative’s consent. Ultimately, Qatar’s gender policy reflects and “reinforces the power and control that men feel they have over women’s lives and choices and may foster or fuel violence,” per Human Rights Watch.

Another issue surrounding the Cup been the treatment of gay and transgender Qataris. Same-sex relationships are illegal in the Gulf nation, which explicitly outlaws “leading, instigating or seducing a male by in any way to commit sodomy” and “inducing or seducing a male or a female... to commit illegal or immoral actions.” The Qatari police have also pursued extrajudicial methods of suppression, using beatings and sexual assault to intimidate and persecute LGBTQ+ citizens. In just the past three years, Human Rights Watch has reported six cases of “severe and repeated beatings” and five cases of sexual assault while in police custody. Even more recently, Khalid Salman, a Qatari ambassador for the World Cup, in an interview with German TV, said that “[homosexuality] is haram” (an Arabic-language term that refers to acts prohibited in Islam) and a “damage in the mind.” Qatari authorities have also banned symbols such as the pride flag and rainbow apparel from the games. For instance, an American journalist was detained and prevented from entering the United States’ match against Wales after he wore a rainbow shirt into the stadium, and Wales fans were required to remove their rainbow hats before entering. Far from providing a welcoming and inviting experience for all fans, this year’s World Cup is actively engaged in stigmatizing and intimidating LGBTQ+ athletes and visitors.

When FIFA awarded Qatar the 2022 World Cup back in 2010, the desert nation lacked the one thing obviously necessary for hosting the biggest soccer tournament in the world: stadiums. It also lacked the infrastructure needed to transport and house the millions of people who attend the matches — hotels, airports, subways, and roads. In order to build all of this in just twelve years, Qatar brought in millions of migrant laborers, mostly from Nepal and other areas of southeast Asia. According to The Guardian, since 2010, at least 6,500 of these workers have died, many of them while building or servicing World Cup infrastructure. In addition to these deaths, Human Rights Watch reports frequent use of recruitment fees — where migrants make high initial payments to recruiters in exchange for a job in Qatar, often taking out large loans to do so and potentially falling into debt bondage. Overall, the cruel and inhumane treatment of these workers is yet another ignominy upon Qatar and FIFA.

The fact that the World Cup is being held in Qatar is a disgrace — a one that could have been avoided if not for the exceptional corruption and blatant fraud within FIFA. As long as the selection of the World Cup host country is shrouded in secrecy, run by the same people who stand to profit from the tournament's spoils, the decision-making process will be marred by scandal and dishonesty. Instead, the choice should be made by an independent committee, made up of not only soccer administrators, but also players, journalists, economists, and human rights activists: people less susceptible to bribery and with other interests than their own profits. If decisions like the one to award the World Cup to Qatar continue to be made, the global reputation of FIFA will only decline further. There have to be consequences within international soccer’s governing body — the future of the competition depends upon it.
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The Razor's Edge reflects the opinion of 4/5 of the editorial board and will not be signed. The Razor welcomes letters to the editor but reserves the right to decide which letters to publish, and to edit letters for space reasons. Unsigned letters will not be published, but names may be withheld on request. Letters are subject to the same libel laws as articles. The views expressed in letters are not necessarily those of the editorial board.
     
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