Gay Qatari warns of crackdown on LGBT people after the World Cup 'to cleanse Western influence' 💬 'It's going to be us suffering with the consequences' PatrickStrud reports:
The scale of the task is huge, said Mohamed. As well as state violence and imprisonment – conducted by the Preventive Security Department – conversion therapy techniques, which refer to any attempts to make LGBT people heterosexual or cisgender, are being forcibly used in Qatar, according to both Mohamed – who is in direct contact with dozens of LGBT people – and Human Rights Watch, which has beenof LGBT people overall in the country.
But according to Mohamed and others, it’s just the start. Those who’ve been arrested, imprisoned, and later released are subject to ongoing infringement on their civil liberties. Now 35, Mohamed left Qatar for the US in 2011, after training to be a primary healthcare doctor. Realising he was gay while still in his home country prompted a fear of being discovered so great that he was unable to even try to meet other gay people. “I struggled a lot,” he said. “I was fading. When I went back home to finish medical school, I was feeling myself fade – who I am, my personality, my well-being. I was just slipping away.
Coming out, however frightening, has transformed Mohamed’s life and wellbeing, enabling him to connect with others that he was too afraid to while in Qatar. Now, he said, “I don’t feel alone. I started a little group for Qatari refugees, the ones that have successfully claimed asylum. It’s growing slowly. A couple of them want to come out.” This might be this year, he said, but more likely after the World Cup. But even talking among themselves, before saying anything publicly, helps.
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