HIGHLIGHTS
- Joe Lycett is urging David Beckham to pull out of a Qatar promotional deal over its treatment of LGBTIQ+ people.
- Dua Lipa said she will not be singing at the World Cup, and will visit when Qatar improves its human rights record.
- Homosexual activity is a criminal offence in Qatar and can be punishable with a jail sentence.
As the World Cup draws closer, scrutiny continues
over Qatar’s human rights record,
with comedian Joe Lycett and musician Dua Lipa the latest public figures to voice concerns.
In a video posted to Twitter, Lycett urged David Beckham to end his multimillion-pound promotional deal with Qatar over the country’s
treatment of the LGBTIQ+ community.
He described Beckham as a “gay icon”.
“You were the first premiership footballer to do shoots with gay magazines like Attitude, to speak openly about your gay fans, and you married a Spice Girl, which is the gayest thing a human being can do,” he said.
“But now it’s 2022, and you’ve signed a reported 10 million pound deal with Qatar to be their ambassador during the FIFA World Cup.
“Qatar was voted as one of the worst places in the world to be gay; homosexuality is illegal punishable by imprisonment and, if you’re Muslim, possibly even death.”
The comedian then held up £10,000 ($17,500) of his own cash, which he said he would donate to charities supporting queer people in football if Beckham pulled out of the partnership.
If Beckham does not pull out, Lycett said he will put the cash in a shredder and stream its destruction live online.
Lycett said Beckham’s “status as a gay icon” would also be shredded.
On Sunday, musician Dua Lipa addressed speculation that she would be performing during the tournament’s opening ceremony.
She denied the rumours, saying she would only visit Qatar when it improved its human rights record.
“I will not be performing and nor have I ever been involved in any negotiation to perform,” she wrote.
“I will be cheering England on from afar and I look forward to visiting Qatar when it has fulfilled all the human rights pledges it made when it won the right to host the World Cup.”
What is Qatar’s human rights record?
Homosexual activity is a criminal offence in Qatar and can be punishable with a jail sentence.
According to LGBTIQ+ rights advocacy organisation Human Dignity Trust, Qatar also operates an interpretation of Sharia law “in which it is technically possible for men who engage in same-sex intimacy to be sentenced to death”.
Earlier this year, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report included distressing accounts from six LGBTIQ+ community members, who allege they were arrested, bashed, and kept in solitary confinement due to their sexuality or expressed gender.
The organising committee for this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar has told SBS News LGBTIQ+ fans won’t face any discrimination during the tournament.
The issue of worker rights has also attracted attention, with thousands of migrants being drafted in to complete the required work and development in time for the tournament.
Migrant workers make up 88 per cent of Qatar’s population, with the majority of those working on the World Cup from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the Philippines.
Since construction on Qatar’s World Cup projects started, concerns have repeatedly been raised around the workers’ pay, rights and safety.
The Qatari government has said 37 labourers at World Cup stadium construction sites died between 2014 and 2020 according to its accident records, only three of which were “work-related”.
