Tag Archives: Qatar

Gender, Ideology + Affiliation

Indonesia & Middle East News | Indonesian Women

Indonesian women continue migrating to Middle East for work despite government ban
  • A new report from Migrant Care has found that more than 1,000 women have traveled to the Middle East for domestic work despite government moratorium.
  • The Indonesian government announced a ban on any new labor-based migration to the Middle East in May 2015 after several high-profile reports of abuse.
  • The revelation comes amidst ongoing efforts by the government to formalize labor practices in the domestic services industry both at home and abroad, with an estimated 2.3 million Indonesian domestic workers abroad and an additional undocumented population.

Read more:
“Indonesian women defy ban to work as maids in Middle East: survey” (The Thomson Reuters Foundation)
“Indonesia plans to stop sending new live-in maids abroad” (The Straits Times)
“Six Gulf countries informed of Indonesia domestic workers ban” (Gulf News)

Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

Qatar News | Christian Immigrants

Evangelical mega-community in Qatar granted construction permission for church
  • The Evangelical Churches Alliance Qatar (ECAQ), home to a multi-ethnic community of 1,200, will construct its building outside of central Doha.
  • The granting of building permits to churches is a recent phenomenon, with the first officially sanctioned church since pre-Islamic times going up in 2008.
  • Only Abrahamic faiths are officially recognized in Qatar, and within Christianity, churches must belong to a select group of sects or receive sponsorship from one of the recognized sects.

“They have supported us throughout. … The government has been very supportive in providing us permissions to hold worship sessions, meetings and other celebrations like our Family Days over the years.”

Read the full story at Doha News.

Gender, Nationality + Migration
Qatar Airways under fire for gender-discriminatory policies, including pregnancy discrimination and freedom to marry
  • The UN’s International Labor Organization has ruled that the state-funded airliner discriminated against women through contracts statements indicating it could terminate their contract should they become pregnant.
  • Employees also had to seek permission from the company for a change in marital status and could only be accompanied to the airport by a male if he were her father, brother, or husband.
  • Comprising 80% of the airline’s cabin crew (of which 90% are foreign workers), women remain vulnerable to discriminatory employment practices carried out under threat of deportation.

“This decision is a game-changer. …A year ago we put Qatar and Qatar Airways in the dock and today it has been proved that we were right to do so. The changes made to the rules for staff failed to fool the ILO. Now the airline must make them for real. It’s time to make Qatar Airways free from fear.”

More on this story at The Guardian.

(Image Credit: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity
Former Al Jazeera America executive files suit against the media organization and its CEO for maintaining a racist and sexist work environment
  • Shannon High-Bassalik, former VP of Programming and Communications, alleges the company favored Arab and male employees, creating a hostile work environment for non-Arab women and engaging in editorial interference that diminished the objectivity of its reporting.
  • The suit comes in the wake of similar legal action taken by another employee and the resignations of three other female executives, who also cited a discriminatory work environment as the cause of their departure.
  • Al Jazeera has responded, claiming High-Bassalik did not introduce her allegations during her pre-termination external performance review.

More on this story at CNN Money.

Nationality + Migration

Some Nepalis working on World Cup construction projects in Qatar denied leave to return to Nepal for funerals and family visits. More from The Guardian.

The Rounds

The Mid-week Rounds

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Protests in Saudi Arabia following the anti-Shiite suicide bombing, assisted suicide debates in the U.K., Myanmar’s anti-Rohingya protests, Russia’s community for parents and their gay children, immigration reform’s stumble in the U.S., Dubai’s motorcycle women, and 45 other stories in this week’s news rounds… Continue reading The Mid-week Rounds →

The Rounds

The Week’s Rounds

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Israel nixes bus segregation plans, the U.K. takes strong stance against undocumented immigrant labor, Russian bill looks to criminalize abortion procedures, a British Muslim woman takes on ISIS through poetry, Ireland celebrates passing of same-sex marriage referendum, and 35 other stories in this week’s news rounds… Continue reading The Week’s Rounds →