did they relax on alcohol too?
Visiting Qatar this summer? Don’t wear shorts.
- Thread starter 88m3
- Start date
MidwestD
Clyde Frog's Shooter
Visiting Qatar this summer? Don’t wear shorts.
- BY ISHAAN THAROOR
- May 27 at 4:10 pm
Image from social media of new brochures being distributed to tourists in Qatar.
A new campaign started in the petro-rich Gulf state of Qatar seeks to encourage tourists to dress modestly and not offend religious sentiments in the staunchly Muslim country.
The grass-roots campaign, started by a group of Qatari women, will officially launch next month, according to Gulf News. It includes a brochure to be distributed to arriving visitors that details what sort of attire conforms to accepted societal standards. As expected, dresses, sleeveless attire and other garments believed to reveal too much skin (or chest hair, it seems) are a strict no-no.
More surprisingly, the campaign, which has its own Twitter and Instagram accounts, advises against men wearing shorts. One wonders how this particular mandate jibes with Qatar's plans to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. The "reflect your respect" campaign has already started populating social media with advisories:
There's a similar campaign in the nearby U.A.E.; its @UAEDressCode Twitter account celebrates official reminders of dress codes in buildings and malls and hails foreigners who obey local protocol:
Two years ago, the Qatari government's Islamic Cultural Center tried its own awareness campaign. "The amount of immodest clothing is growing in public places, especially shopping malls. Such foreigner behavior conflicts with our traditions. We do not want our kids to be exposed to it or learn from it, and that’s why we will start this campaign," an official told Gulf News at the time.
With its vast oil and natural gas reserves, Qatar has seen a population boom over the past decade, tripling in size from 600,000 people in 2001 to 1.9 million in 2011. This is almost entirely thanks to an influx of foreign expatriates and migrant workers, almost all of whom will never be entitled to Qatari citizenship and the lavish benefits that come with being a national of the world's richest country per capita. Still, the existence of a foreign majority in Qatar has caused anxiety over the challenges it poses to the country's traditions.
The brochures now in the news tell foreigners that the mere fact of their presence in Qatar means "you are one of us." That is an interesting designation: Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers toiling away on the country's countless construction sites rarely are made to feel "one" with Qataris. Indeed, the emirate's old-fashioned "kafala" labor system effectively treats migrants like indentured servants, kept in the thrall of employers. The situation has prompted myriad reports of abuse. One hopes there would be as much local grass-roots concern regarding their plight as there is about the exposed knees of sweaty tourists.
Update: Sufficiently chastened by reader reactions, I will point your attention to a message in the brochure that escaped my earlier scrutiny: the asterisked note in all caps, advising: "LEGGINGS ARE NOT PANTS." In Doha, consider yourself warned.
Visiting Qatar this summer? Don’t wear shorts.
I'm confused, the chart looks like shorts are x'd out, but the text says you only have to be covered to the knees.
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
seems like youre life is on the line going to the gulf states a lot of people get caught up in their legal system
For real, they might have separate sections for men and women, and I wouldn't be surprised if they want as far as separating local women from overseas women. And the "modest" attire police will be in full effect
Didn't Blatter say a couple weeks ago giving them the WC was a mistake
Yeah but it wasn't because of the slave labor or anything, it was because of a concern over the temperature or something
Suicide King
#OldBlack
You will get major organ failure and your body will shut down on the soccer field.
So they will build special stadiums that will keep things cool.
Rayzah
I'm Everywhere you ain't never there
So, im getting ready to go over there for a contract position, I think Im staying on an army base, could you give a fellow FSU fan some info on the area?
I was deployed there in 2012. It reaches 140 degrees out there! There's no way I'd comply...
FluffyCorleone
Banned
the cac mamba
Banned
another day, another repressive islamic shythole 
yeahisaidit
All Star
How long will you be there? What info are you most interested in? Do you like dirt bikes, motorcycles, etc.?
Rayzah
I'm Everywhere you ain't never there
im going to be there atleast a year, I really dont know anything about qatar, what is there to do? what type of nightlife if any do they have?I hear they have really strict rules, like do they really exepect you to not wear shorts when its 100+ degrees? I'm not really into the dirt bikes or motorcycles.
joeychizzle
光復香港，時代革命
The fact that people need to cover up so heavily in Saudi means that their people can't control themselves otherwise. What kind of a weak minded fool would you have to be to be unable to resist having dirty thoughts or molesting or raping people if a little skin is involved?
Oh yeah. Religious people. A TELLTALE sign of the weak minded.
Oh yeah. Religious people. A TELLTALE sign of the weak minded.
Dr. Sebi Jr.
Trust Me
If you're in a Sharia country, be respectful and follow Sharia law.But Western countries need to ban free speech so cartoons of the Prophet can't be drawn.
