Disturbing: Women Pulled From 10 Flights For Invasive Exams
The year 2020 has been full of harrowing stories and this one is right near the top of that list. Information has been coming out over the last few days of an atrocious occurrence in Doha, Qatar earlier this month. It is a sad story of a women giving birth in an airport bathroom and then abandoning her, leaving her there to die. That sadness is compounded when women from 10 different planes departing Doha were completely violated. The Qatar government first tried to back their airport employees before finally succumbing to the fact that an investigation needed to be held and charges needed to be brought.
Baby Abandoned In Trash Receptacle
The situation started out with a mother giving birth to her child in the airport bathroom. The baby, a newborn girl, was then concealed in a plastic bag and buried under trash and left in the garbage bin, presumably to die.
Luckily, the child was found in time before anymore harm came to her. She is alive and well, and is under medical care in Doha. I have not seen any reports of what is likely to happen with her next next but CBS News has given a reason why this horrible situation may have happened. It is believed that the mother may have been pregnant outside of wedlock, which is a crime in Qatar, and may have panicked. That is mere speculation at this point until, if and when, the mother is located.
One Tragedy Leads To Another
Once the baby was located officials in the airport began a frantic search for the mother. The way they decided to go about this is beyond comprehension. It is reported that women were pulled from 10 different planes in an effort to track down the mother. These women were not informed why they were being removed from the plane and what was in store for them once they exited the planes. The airport employees were grabbing women of all ages, which doesn’t really make any sense from a medical perspective.
Upon exiting the plane the women were taken to an ambulance on the tarmac. Inside the ambulance they were invasively examined to see if there were any signs of recent childbirth. In total, 18 women were subjected to this, 13 of them from Australia.
Qatar Backtracks On Their Original Comments About The Situation
Once Australia caught wind of this atrocity they put pressure on Qatar to investigate the situation. Australia is a major hub for Qatar airlines and Australian officials threatened to cease work on their planes and other measures until something was done. The Australian Foreign Minister, Marine Payne, kept pressure on Qatar officials after they expressed regret but defended the actions of the airport workers.
On Friday the Qatari government changed their course and gave the following quote:
“procedures taken by the authorities at the airport, including examining a number of female passengers, revealed that standard procedures were violated.”
“Those responsible for these violations and illegal actions have been referred to the Public Prosecution Office,” the statement added. It was not specified how many were being investigated or for what charges.
The government said officials would work to “ensure that any violations are avoided in the future” and apologized for “what some female travelers went through as a result of the measures.”
“What took place is wholly inconsistent with Qatar’s culture and values,” the statement said.
“The subsequent procedures taken by the authorities at the airport, including examining a number of female passengers, revealed that standard procedures were violated,” the statement said. “Those responsible for these violations and illegal actions have been referred to the Public Prosecution Office.”
Final Thoughts
This story is saddening on so many levels. A woman having to give birth by herself in a bathroom toilet, and then making the inexcusable decision to abandoned her baby. That horrible situation was compounded when 18 women’s privacy and rights were violated with an invasive and completely unnecessary exam. An exam that could be called rape since no consent was ever given.
The only good thing to come out of this is at least the child was spared, and is alive, and healthy.
This is beyond disturbing and something that I never thought I would have to read or write about. Hopefully all of the women involved, and the child, are able to overcome this tragedy.
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All created by a stupid inhumane law (and society) that makes it a crime to have a child out of wedlock. I wouldn’t be surprised if the woman was at the airport trying to get out of the country to have her baby and went into labor before that could happen.
I watched a news interview of an elderly female who experienced this and she stated it was a male doctor as well who did these exams (where some were indeed invasive.) Crazy indeed. I really hope this is a wake up call to Qatar as I’d imagine they’d make a huge fuss if Westerners did this to Qatari females.
Why pull women above child bearing age off of the planes…I found that to be confusing myself.