As airlines adopt new ways to work around a virus that has emptied out airports, there are fewer people around to hold an airline to account when it messes up. As news of the incident in Doha spread, it threatened to tarnish Qatar’s international relations.
It has also highlighted the treatment of women in a country where systemic gender disparity and oppression are common, and where it is illegal to have sex or become pregnant outside of marriage. Local women charged with such a crime, known as “zina,” can be imprisoned.
The question of whether foreign women traveling through the Doha airport could legally be subject to the same laws, and to invasive and potentially nonconsensual procedures, was unclear, experts said. Nevertheless, the details reported by the Australian authorities shocked many.
“I have never come across something quite like this before,” said Heather Barr, a lawyer and co-director of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, who is based in Pakistan. “These examinations can constitute sexual assault.”
Ms. Barr said that even if the women were not forced to participate in the medical examinations, giving free and informed consent would be extremely difficult under the circumstances, in which the women had likely paid large sums, or waited for long periods, to travel to Australia during a global pandemic.
It was unclear, she added, what recompense might be open to the women who had been examined. She said it was crucial any investigation be carried out openly and with the participation of the Australian government.
The director of Amnesty International Australia, Samantha Klintworth, noting that news outlets reported that the incident occurred on Oct. 2, said in a statement, “Why then has it taken until now, following a report in the media, for the department to approach the Qatari authorities for an explanation?”