From imprisonment to death by stoning: A look at Qatar's LGBTQ laws after man detained for wearing rainbow t-shirt

New Delhi: A US sports journalist was briefly detained on Monday when he tried to enter a World Cup stadium in Qatar while wearing a rainbow shirt in support of the LGBTQ community in a country where same-sex relations are illegal.

Grant Wahl said World Cup security denied him entry to the United States’ opener against Wales at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan and asked him to take his shirt off. He said his phone was taken away when he tweeted about the incident.

He said a security commander later approached him, apologized and allowed him into the venue. He also later received an apology from a representative of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, he said.

LGBTQ laws in Qatar

Under the Islamic Sharia law, Qatar considers homosexual acts immoral. They are illegal. The law in Qatar punishes a person with one to three years of imprisonment for “inducing or seducing a male or a female in any way to commit illegal or immoral actions”.

Punishment can also reach up to seven years’ imprisonment and even death by stoning.

The law also calls for similar punishment for whoever is “instigating” or “seducing” a male to “commit sodomy”. Men and women can face action under the Penal Code 2004, which criminalises same-sex activity.

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