Doha airport scandal… Qatar announces identity of the baby
Qatari authorities have identified an abandoned infant at Doha airport last October, forcing female travelers to undergo a humiliating vaginal examination to identify potential mothers, authorities said.
In a statement, Qatar’s Attorney General said that the mother is of the nationality of an Asian country, and that investigations revealed that she “threw the newborn baby in the trash in the departure hall of an airport terminal and boarded the plane to her destination.”
The crisis between Australia and Qatar worsened last month after Australian female travelers revealed that they were subjected to forced vaginal examinations to see if they were responsible for throwing an abandoned infant in a bathroom in Hamad International Airport in Doha.
The Australian Foreign Ministry condemned the incident as an “attack” and asked the Qatari authorities to provide an answer, but the reactions did not stop there.
In a form of interaction with the issue, Australian politicians from different parties walked out of a dinner hosted by the Embassy of Qatar in Australia, in protest at the insults Australian women received at Doha airport.
Australia’s left-wing opposition Labor Party has called on Foreign Minister Marise Payne to telephone her Qatari counterpart and register a protest over the incident, because Australians are outraged that their fellow nationals are being treated with dignity.
A witness goes out of her silence
An Australian woman recently decided to break her silence and spoke of the “nightmare” that her classes and other travelers had experienced on a country-line flight.
The Australian “60 Minutes” program featured the testimony of Jane, an Australian nurse who was among women who were forced to undergo degrading forced examinations to ensure they were not born.
Jane was taken along with others by the Qatari police, who gave no explanation or explanation of the reason for the move, which fueled their fears.
The nurse, who did not appear openly on the show, said she felt the story should be told “even if it was uncomfortable to talk about what happened in Qatar”.
The program stated that Australian and Western travelers would not have been exposed to this “barbaric behavior” in 2020, when they believed they were in a safe place while crossing Qatar on a long flight.
Insult
“We felt like criminals, and I thought about what would happen to me in this country (Qatar) if they saw I was already guilty?”.
Jane, who burst into tears during the show, said: “I was scared, and I wonder why I was called out to get out of the plane,” she said, “There was no other choice but to comply.”
Then the Australian traveler started thinking a lot about things being driven and checked. Are we being kidnapped or are they taking us somewhere?”
When the female passenger was asked whether she considered what happened in Doha to be a sexual assault, she said: “Yes, it is.”
Without any explanation, a nurse in the ambulance asked the Australian passenger to take off the trousers and then the underwear. “I didn’t know why I was asking for this, and I tried to keep my clothes on.. They insulted me.”
She said that Qatari security personnel came to the plane with weapons “and we did not know at the time whether it was a hostage or a terrorist”, while the passengers were in a state of shock.
These Australian travelers were not contacted as required, according to the program, and the Qatari policemen were not familiar with the conversation in English.
