Dutch Woman Raped in Qatar; Convicted of Sex Outside of Marriage

In mid-March, 2016 a Dutch woman, known to the media only as Laura, awakened in a stranger’s Doha, Qatar apartment to find that she had been raped. Immediately following the act, she summoned the courage to report the crime to local authorities. But not only did Qatari officials not prosecute her assailant on rape charges, Laura herself was detained and charged with Zina, “illicit consensual fornication” and with “being intoxicated in a public place”. At a hearing on June 13th, Laura was given a one-year suspended sentence and three years’ probation for the consensual sex charge, along with a fine of $823 (in Qatari Royals) for the alcohol charge; the Qatari government says that it will not release Laura until the fine is paid; Laura is likely to be deported back to the Netherlands.

Omar Abdullah al-Hasan, her alleged rapist, was also convicted of Zina and sentenced to 100 lashes. Al-Hasan was also found guilty of consuming alcohol; Qatari law prohibits Muslims from drinking alcohol.  Al-Hasan will be given an additional 40 lashes for this offense and will be deported to his home country of Syria.

Beyond the gendered disparity in their punishments for the same supposed offense, Laura’s case makes apparent how Qatari law places an almost insurmountable burden of proof on rape victims. While rape is punishable by a “term up to exceeding fifteen years”[1] under Qatari law, Laura’s lawyers would have had to prove that there had been no voluntary contact between her and her alleged attacker for the claim to hold up in court.  Even the two having been seen walking together could be treated as evidence to dismiss the claim that sex was non-consensual.

A similar situation in nearby Dubai sparked similar outrage in 2013, when a 24-year-old Norwegian woman was given a 16-month prison sentence for sex outside of marriage after claiming she was raped. The requirements for proving a rape in both Gulf States are quite strict, and in practice, many women are afraid to come forth about their rape for fear of being imprisoned for another crime: fornication. Imprisoning women for being the victims of rape is also common in Pakistan, where in 2006 the Guardian reported 80% of female convicts were imprisoned on charges of Zina.

Qatar, like Dubai and Pakistan, bases its laws regulating sexual intercourse on Sharia Law. Sharia mandates 4 witnesses in order to confirm illicit sexual intercourse, including rape. This forms the basis for Qatari law, which while not necessarily mandating four witnesses to prove sexual assault, often results in women being unable to prove rape charges and unwittingly confessing to illicit sexual intercourse.

[1] See article 286