No women on Qatars Olympic team parade..

9 Aug, 2008  Sport

The Olympics is something that Qatar is proud to be a part of. With only a population of around 380,000 Qatar does quite well and is particularly known for Shooting, Archery, Horse Riding, Football, Heavy Weight Lifting and Taekwondo.

One question though that I was asked during the parade was, “where are all the women?”. Well there’s one point to mention. You can’t just get ANY woman to parade. They have to qualify as athletes. We do have qualifying athletes too and we’re so proud of them. Particularly Qatar’s best archer.

See here http://www.nadazeidan.com/

I was quite suprised and have no answer to that question. Maybe they were late? Maybe they didn’t want to parade. God knows… I think it’s a stupid move on Qatar’s Olympic Committee’s part. It just perpetuates the stereotype that woman are on the side lines.

Freedom of Expression

    Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which the Qatari Government is a signatory of states: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any medias and regardless of any frontiers.

    The Emiri Decision Number 86 of the year 2007 on the establishment of the Doha Free Information Centre marked yet another step towards establishing a State of rights and freedom of speech. The decision stipulated that the Centre be a non-profit organization, headquartered in Doha City, and have the authority to establish other affiliated centres inside and outside Qatar. It is worth mentioning that His Highness the Emir issued a decision in 1998 annulling the ministry of information, giving birth to a new era of freedom of speech where censorship was removed from local media.