A nurse who was among women strip-searched at Hamad International Airport in Doha after travelling from the UK has spoken of her ordeal.
The Australian national said she was ordered to leave a plane by armed guards while her husband was told to stay in his seat.
Last month, 13 women were ordered off flights by guards in Qatar for intimate strip searches after a newborn baby was found abandoned in a bin at the airport.
"We felt like criminals," she told TV station Channel 9's 60 Minutes programme.
"'If they think I'm guilty, what is going to happen to me', I thought. They came on the plane with guns and I didn't know if I was going to be kidnapped."
The woman said she was forced into an ambulance, which was surrounded by 12 armed men.
"A woman told me I needed to be tested and made me lie on a table and put a sheet over me," she said.
She was then asked to remove her clothes.
The victim said she had originally felt she was "lucky" after she and her husband obtained seats on a Qatar Airways flight to Australia to escape the growing number of Covid-19 cases in London.
But she said that what happened was a sexual assault.
"It was incredibly unfair," she said.
The UK Minister for Middle East and North Africa, James Cleverly, has spoken to Qatar's deputy foreign minister to voice his concern over the incident.
Two British women were among those searched.
Qatar has said those responsible have been referred to the public prosecutor’s office.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE APPRENTICE
Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 3/5
INDIA'S%20TOP%20INFLUENCERS
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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7.
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Singapore
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8.
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Australia
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9.
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Saudi Arabia
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10.
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South Korea
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Tickets
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
ALRAWABI%20SCHOOL%20FOR%20GIRLS
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COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
