An airport cleaning crew found a premature baby abandoned in a bathroom at Doha’s Hamad International Airport. Acting quickly, authorities attempted to locate the mother. The result: international outrage over an invasive strip search of at least 13 female Qatar Airways passengers. But is such outrage misplaced?
Qatar Airways Female Passengers Face Strip Search After Baby Found Abandoned In Airport Bathroom
On October 2, 2020, an abandoned baby was found in a bathroom at Doha Airport. It isn’t clear whether the baby was found in a toilet or trash can or counter, but the baby was alive, though born premature.
When authorities were alerted, they opted to detain the female passengers onboard Qatar Airways flight QR908 to Sydney, Australia, which had already departed the gate. Reports are conflicting at this time, but there were at least 13 females onboard and all were led off the aircraft. Some have suggested that QR908 was not the only flight detained as authorities quickly tried to locate the mother.
In what must have been a horrific situation, the women were led downstairs into a cellar or garage. Two ambulances were waiting. One at a time, women were asked to board the ambulance. Inside, they were asked to remove their lower garments for a vaginal examination. Medical examiners searched for any signs of a recent birth. When asked for an explanation, they were only told, “A baby has been found in a bin, and we need to test you.”
The mother was not located by authorities.
Why Target The Australia Flight?
I’m no Sherlock Holmes, but there may be at least two reasons the Australia flight was targeted. Could it be that the baby was light skinned? Or could it be, as Qatar authorities suggest, that the flight to Australia was one of the only flights departing nearby the bathroom where the baby was found?
Addressing the incident, airport officials said:
“Medical professionals expressed concern to officials about the health and welfare of a mother who had just given birth and requested she be located prior to departing HIA. Individuals who had access to the specific area of the airport where the newborn infant was found were asked to assist in the query.”
There are more questions than answers right now. Were flight attendants searched too? Airport workers, one of which may have been a surrogate mother? It isn’t clear at all whether the female passengers onboard the Qatar Airways flights were exclusively targeted or were simply the ones who spoke up. The incident took place nearly a month ago, but is coming out now because the women onboard QR908 communicated with one another (after exchanging WhatsApp numbers onboard) and jointly approached Australian authorities after their 14-day mandatory lockdown.
A Moral + Legal Issue
Western notions of probable cause and the rights of the accused do not necessarily apply in Qatar. But the issue is not really a legal one as much as a moral one.
Putting myself in the shoes of Qatari authorities, I can imagine why they desperately wanted to find the mother of the child. Leaving a newborn child to die in an airport restroom shows a wanton disregard for human life.
But importantly and thankfully, the child did not die. In fact, the child appears to be doing well. Only a desperate woman wholly unfit to be a mother would abandon her child in an airport restroom. In that sense, what was the point of finding the mother? To throw the mother in jail? To what end? So the baby and mother could be re-united? I certainly hope not.
When my wife applied for her Green Card to the United States, she was given an invasive and degrading medical examination. She was forced to strip naked while a male doctor closely examined every inch of her. She was humiliated. I was livid. I understand the violation that occurred and without probable cause, I see no moral defense of what took place, even if Qatar had the legal right to do so.
CONCLUSION
The facts are still unfolding and I will be revisiting this issue once Qatari authorities release a report. I suspect other flights were targeted and it wasn’t just 13 Australians who were subjected to this, as if the baby had a kangaroo tattoo.
I don’t think Qatari officials handled this well. Basic communication failed. And while I cannot blame them for wanting to locate the mother, it certainly wasn’t for the benefit of the child.
This incident is a poignant reminder that individual rights are illusory, even in more “liberal” Arab states. Be mindful of that as you transit the glittering cities of Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Dubai.
No. Just no. How is this even a question?
It’s a question because it happened. My answer is no. I’m curious if there is anyone willing to defend it…
No one is willing to defend the Qatari absolute monarchy royal family and their tactics to abuse human rights ! as a woman I will never feel safe traveling again knowing that my money is going to such a regime that supports the Muslim Brotherhood Organisation that abuses women rights
I must confess the mere fact you posed the question had me baffled. Was glad to read your article in full & realise your opinion matches my own.
(Was also appalled to learn about your wife’s experience getting approved for a Green Card.)
I am!
It seems that for fear of offending certain over-sensitise western z-gen types, a baby killer could be allowed to get away with murder, literally, wen a medically supervised examination may be alll that is needed to apprehend the culprit,
If the shoe were om he other foot, I would be more than ready to submit to a rectal examination in order to assist the authorities in their search for the offender, not least when I am a guest on foreign soil, remaining respectful of customs and traditions of the hosts
We all should all stand against this ridiculous sexism and stereotyping.
Why weren’t the guys searched too?
We should boycott Qatar Airways and Qatar ! spending our money on them will only help the Qatari absolute monarchy royal family to abuse more human rights !
Yes. Yes. Yes. Don’t fly a Muslim airline. It’s just not safe. Wonder if it was a baby boy, as they’re likely not to have bothered for a baby girl. Western countries should unite and put all who were involved through a western legal system and get Interpol to arrest any of these people if they step on western country soil.
There was a huge uproar from the female community here in Qatar. However, most of the men thought the Qatari officials were just trying to find the mother to give her medical treatment. As per the laws, if they had found her and assuming the circumstances under which she could not keep the child, the mother would have been in prison (out of wedlock).
The strip search was a basic human right violation as well as an Islamic violation. The Government agrees to that. But the way that some people reacted to the incident was itself troublesome and worrying.
Way more than 13 women involved. That was just the Australians, many other nationalities also. Seen stories talking of over 40 women searched
On what planet do we think it’s okay to subject random women to invasive searches just because they are women? Sure, leaving a newly born baby in the bathroom is terrible. But that wrong doesn’t give governments the right to strip search every woman on the plane. I guess in certain backwards countries where woman are not equal to men this shouldn’t be surprising though.
Backwards country?
Sounds like you haven’t had a family member choked to death by the cops for $20 in the USA.
Or a president who whines on 60 minutes that he gets all the tough questions. Is he 70+ years old or a 6 year old kid.
Remember people we are on high alert for terrorism after the white terrorist militias tried to run terrorist camps in Michigan and tried to overthrow a legitimately elected government. If you see a white man acting suspiciously please call the cops. They still might not get choked to death though because “white”.
Backwards country? USA is a pathetic country.
Touche.
Hopefully we only have a few more weeks of the Cheeto in Chief
After Pompeo signed the US into this new anti-abortion/women are losing all rights over their own bodies/what rights? agreement with dictatorial countries, I fear we’re all headed back to the dark ages.
I’m not an “abortion as birth control” person, but women bear the brunt of so many wrongs imposed, too often, by those who seek to play God.
Bro, they weren’t “random women.” They were near the bathroom and could have reasonably been the horrible person who abandoned the baby.
Bro, doesn’t matter. That baby’s horrible start to life doesn’t mean all those women who happened to be near the gate should be subjected to invasive searches. If this was in a random alley, should every woman living in a 4 block radius be searched?
Yes.
Matthew, I agree that whoever this mother is is unfit to parent and should be imprisoned for life for committing such a heinous crime, which is exactly why she needs to be caught. What she did is not okay. That said, how are the Qatari officials supposed to catch her? It sounds like they did the best that they could under the circumstances.
They could use the baby or stuff on the baby to try to conduct a DNA search and narrow down the identity of the mother and father that way, if the mother and/or father was actually from a country where a lot of people submit their own samples for genetic genealogy searches. It would probably be too late for the Qataris to prosecute the mother for illegal child abandonment, but this seems like a situation where the illegal abandonment signifies problems that go beyond whether or not someone should be prosecuted in Qatar or elsewhere for illegal child abandonment.
@Matthew, I know it’s personal and expect no elaboration, but I wasn’t aware the medical exam that your wife had to go through to obtain a green card was even a thing that existed. How terrible and for what purpose?!
What is it with INS/CBP. Is their mission to actually outperform every evil organization in history?
His wife could’ve had a female doctor do this. One needs an immigration exam from a certified doctor, of which there are numerous female doctors. The contents of the exam are well known to anybody who will undergo it.
That is a problem with policing all over the world. The use of force as the first option, rather than good judgement.
Just a little thought would have made a difference and consideration of the potential emotional trauma to the innocent female passengers, could have guided them in handling this matter. In fact, the authorities could have announced to all passengers the situation about the baby, with pictures and then asked for information from the passengers, thus turning the passengers into a resource for resolving the identity of the mother. But no; they just had to alienate everyone, especially the unfortunate female passengers.
This is sad, regrettable and most unfortunate.
I sincerely sympathize with the distressed female passengers.
I had to undergo a medical examination to apply for a New Zealand Visa, and yes I find it quite invasive but I had a choice, I could have found another job in my Country. I don’t think all those women had a say.
No, it is not justified. Certainly, forcing someone into a rushed invasive examination based on weak grounds of suspicion can never be acceptable. Not in Qatar and not anywhere else. Heads will undoubtedly have already rolled (figuratively) over this even before the international attention.
That said, I do find ironic that these Aussies used their time in forced “imprisonment” upon arrival “home” to complain about how their “rights” were violated abroad. Just sayin’….
Wow Sean, you made a post without mentioning that you are a seasoned airline executive.
Are these comments about discrimination against women because men weren’t searched too serious? I can’t tell if they’re being facetious. If they’re serious, just wow. Somebody skipped 4th grade biology class, and didn’t realize that facts don’t care about your feelings, and that I can guarantee than none of the men had recently given birth even without an invasive strip search.
It is such horrible news !!! hopefully the Australian government puts an end to this human rights abusing tactics by the Qatari absolute monarchy royal family !! and the west is silent because they buy weapons from them ! not to mention how much Qatar support the Iranian regime in killing its own people !! Qatari regime must be fined and sanctioned the hell out of them !! As a woman I will NEVER feel safe traveling again ! Doha, Qatar is such a dangerous place for women and human rights
Saudi Arabia and the UAE must be “fined and sanctioned the hell out of them”, but they get a pass because they so effectively buy off the various elite classes in “the West”.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE — not to necessarily skip over the other Gulf Arab monarchies that are in bed with Saudi Arabia and the UAE — are actually way worse than Qatar in killing Arabs and others in Asia and Africa. And Saudi Arabia and the UAE are a recipe for disaster when it comes to the chances for the populations of Muslim-majority countries, Shia-majority or otherwise, to have democracy.
Here comes the Muslim Brotherhood Agent !! are you afraid to loose your job in Qatar?
In your wildest imagination; or to put it more straight: in your most baseless, fantastic nightmares.
You communicate like an agent for the Saudi- and Emirati-backed terrorist organization MEK with its anti-Qatari lines in recent years. Is that a coincident, or are you a fan of the MEK that was previously blacklisted (as due) as a militant terrorist organization by the US Government?
Ghadir, as in treachery, or as in a tiny water body? 😉
“Is that a coincidence* …… “
@Matthew
Was your wife not given an option to be examined by a female medical officer? I would assume that to be the case, since that was what I heard for people who would require medical examinations for immigration to the UK, Australia and Canada.
I don’t believe so, but I will ask her. I was in the USA and she was in Germany when it happened. She told me (directly) after the fact.
Wouldn’t it have been easier for all involved just to give a pregnancy hormone test to screen first? This just seems like the stupidest possible method to find the woman, let alone the most embarrassing.
This!! Yeah, really a stupid way to screen for recent birth. But knowledge of pregnancy and female-related medical science is something lacking in this country among male decision makers. I can’t even imagine how poor it would be from a country like Qatar
Stick to travel dudes, leave your political b**** at home
?
Elaborate.
All strip searches are a form of rape. Nakedness is something sacred. Anyone who forces you to remove your clothes is a rapist. Is this something you want done to your daughters or sons or parents? That’s why I hate government and the police the state. Strip searches are routinely done in jails and prisons and it makes me sick to my stomach. It will not end until every cop, judge, prosecutor, jailer, and their families are taken by members of the public and strip searched on a constant basis. Then they will see the harm they do by aiding and abetting it and performing them. There is no excuse for strip searches. X-rays exist. There is also no excuse for inmates being forced to shower in front of others or inmate not being held in individual cells with privacy. No person can claim to be a Christian and support having nakedness violated by government,
Qatar’s “guilty until proven innocent” sexist profiling involved a strip search for purposes of what was a genital examination of unwilling female targets. Qatar’s acts in this regard are nothing but a disgusting intrusion (conducted by people on a power trip) with no regard to the rights of the innocent to be secure in their body (and attire) from invasive searches.
Did you seek Heidis’ permission before writing that piece of information on the blog? I think that she has a right to have a say in whether you writing that is OK or not.
“When my wife applied for her Green Card to the United States, she was given an invasive and degrading medical examination. She was forced to strip naked while a male doctor closely examined every inch of her.”
No way was this legal. You should sue. Neither I nor my sister never have had any “medical examination” done during this process.
While I am sorry that Matthew was livid for the physical exam that his wife received by a male doctor, being subjected to the same exam by a lesbian is no better. There were (or should be) written standards to what the physical exam was supposed to investigate. Maybe it was to screen for dangerous diseases though the green card stage is a little late for that.
While there is outrage, there are similarities when the police round up men in a small town for DNA tests to catch a rapist. No probable cause for the vast majority of tested men.
For the Qatari, I don’t think it would be any better if they did genital exams on everybody including men to prove they don’t discriminate. The men are guaranteed not to be the one to give birth unless they are a women pretending to be a man. I suspect that they exempted elderly women beyond childbirth age and children that have not reached puberty. They probably excluded Black people (White Lives Matter?) because the Australians and the baby was white. They may have excluded Qataris, which tend to be a little dark.
In the end, the Qatari examination was probably less invasive than requiring blood tests of everyone. It was also probably quicker than subjecting everyone to a mini-trial. Just look and screen. If they knew this would happen, they could have set up a process to collect swabs from people’s mouth and compare it with the baby’s DNA but that requires some complicated logistics rather than just call two ambulances and look at 18 vaginas.
In short, the Qatari examination might have been the quickest and most efficient way to screen passengers even though the optics of it in the news is clearly bad.
There are some newborn children in the Arab world — and even in parts of the Indian subcontinent– who are “light-skinned” at birth to such an extent that I can’t tell them apart from the newborns in hospitals in the rural Upper Midwest of the US or Sweden.
But you can bet if the Qatari authorities targeted the wrong sheikh’s relative to conduct a genital inspection, it would not go over well. And it shouldn’t go over well no matter whose relative a searched passenger may be, as there is nothing good about treating any innocent person as being a guilty suspect — and it’s even worse when such treatment involves a dragnet based on profiling.
Morally, of course you are right. Legally, do you if this was permissible? I don’t…and I would like to know if Qatar even violated its own law.
Once at TLV (Israel), I had to undo my trousers to prove I did not have a bomb or weapon there. It was in a private room. The Israeli agent did not reach into my anus, so I’m greatful. I didn’t even have to remove my underwear, just undo the trousers and pull them down a little.
I tried to engage in psychological warfare by asking with a dumb expression, like I was trying to help, “Do you want to look in my shoe?”. The agent said “no” and then said that I was done with the search and could pack up and go.
Matthew, all strip searches of any degree and any kind are crimes against humanity. They don’t gel with fundamental Christian principles of nakedness which belongs to the individual, his or her spouse, and parents (when a baby).
I hate liberals because they want to criminalize every facet of life and subject people to do this disgustingness and evil. All conservatives need to be made aware of the practice but they will still probably blindly support the police who are responsible for this. It’s illogical. Conservatives hate government for intrusion into our lives. We should hate the people who do it. We should have rage that this goes on.
This was a heinous crime (if the baby had died it would have been murder or, at least, manslaughter). The issue facing the Qatari authorities was that it was likely that the culprit was taking the next plane out – they would simply lose the ability to find the culprit unless they did something immediate. Clearly it was the wrong thing to do – they should simply have halted all departures until they could figure out the right thing to do – but I can see why it happened.
And it’s no good saying that this attempted murder doesn’t matter because the baby survived: that’s never an excuse for such a horrific crime. Personally, I will still feel safer in Qatar than in the USA. In the latter country they likely won’t strip search me but they have every right to detain me without due process and search all my data without any warrant or excuse – something I gather they do regularly. So before everyone gets on their high horse, they should consider these matters in the round, especially in an era where freedoms we took for granted have now been removed, even in supposedly democratic and freedom loving states.
No, no, no. Completely indefensible. We give succour to these vile regimes by selling them things, acquiescing in their corruption, ignoring their human rights abuses. Effectively they buy our silence, making us complicit in their hideous behaviour.
We let them buy the World Cup; now they believe they can do as they please without recrimination.
I read that the victims were not given any explanation prior to being violated.
Absolutely disgusting act. Criminal charges should apply. Apparently the punishment for sexual abuse in Qatar is 1000 lashes.
Qatar, like all the Gulf Arab monarchies — including the Saudi and Emirati monarchies — is yet another autocratic place where the ruling class and even their favorites can too often get away with crimes under color of authority. And that includes sexual assault of subordinates, detainees, and others.
Could it be that the birth-giver of the abandoned child was a victim of rape or other illegal impregnation in the wrong place and without resource to legal protection for herself and the child? There are a lot of possibilities for why a newborn may have been found where the newborn was found without it even involving any passenger having given birth on a flight into Qatar or even at DOH.
What I want to know is what is the Qatari government doing with the foundling. It’s not like the birth-giver of the child can be deemed a suitable mother for the foundling.
Thank you for writing this, Matthew. It’s refreshing to not see polarized propaganda spread by virtue of the mob mentality we see more and more each day. I read about the invasive strip search last night and I was livid. Being a feminist my mind unfortunately immediately went to Qatar = No Female Rights and mind you that’s purely because I’m misinformed and I was unfortunately quick to jump to conclusions. Anyway, today I read that a new born baby was abandoned at the airport and now I’m able to see things in a very different light. A baby was found abandoned! How is that not receiving any gasps? What were the airport authorities supposed to do at that moment? I read comments here saying they could do a DNA test and I’m flabbergasted. This situation obviously demanded immediate action. Abandonment is illegal in any country and beyond that it’s immoral. For those saying that there’s no point finding the parent who very likely did not want the child and that the baby is being taken care of by Qatari authorities, I want to ask, is this what folks who want to abandon kids do then? Leave them in Qatar for them to be taken care of! There is merit in finding the person who birthed the child even if that person does not want the child as while what that person did was illegal and solicits punishment maybe someone from that person’s family would want the baby. Also one irresponsible and heartless person’s actions does generate terrible consequences but let’s not forget what caused this in the first place. Lastly, for those saying the people should have atleast been told why they were being examined – when someone commits a crime and a group of people fit the profile, you don’t tell them the crime while you check if they are guilty or not. How this has become a sexist act astounds me. But this is precisely why the feminist movement never progresses – always one step ahead and two steps back. Anyway along with critical thinking, biology needs to be retaught. The news across channels should have been “New-born baby (who did not ask to be born) found ruthlessly abandoned at an airport which resulted in an unfortunate search of certain people who (fit the profile) were around the vicinity of the heinous act”.
What kind of feminist are you? What do you know about immigrant workers in Qatar? Have you any idea of what could happen in Qatar to a women that is treated like a slave if she’s raped and gets pregnant?
You have to wonder… couldn’t they have just rewind the cameras??? I apologize for my naiveté, but I’m pretty sure it’s not difficult to discern a woman who was pregnant and then no longer so.
They stripsearch people at airports in Australia, New Zealand and Bali too, these searches violate human rights.
So the Australian government is going to analize the case and ensure it des not happen again? Just like Paul Keatings flogging with a warm lettuce. What happened to the feisty Australian touch? Could having anything to do with the billions that the Qatar Investment Authority has put into Australian business lead the government to kick the can down the road? There have been multiple sexual assaults and those responsible at the airport need to be identified, summoned and then put on the Interpol list if they do not come to be interviewed. Harvey Weinstein is in jail for a lot less. As far as Qatar is concerned it was virtully unknown except for its involvement in fixing the next world cup choice of venue. Now it is known as a fixer and as a place that sanctions sexual assault. Ironic that these countries clad their own women from top to bottom in burkhas and the like.
Matthew, I am very concerned by what your wife went through. When I applied for my US Green Card, the only medical exam I had to obtain was some simple testing to make sure I didn’t have tuberculosis.
In Australia, rape is defined in gender-neutral terms as the penetration of the vagina, anus or mouth without consent. Although in some countries, like Scotland, rape is limited to penile penetration, in all Australian states and territories, it includes penetration with the use of any body part or object. 17 de abr. de 2018.
This is similar to the US DOJ definition. Ergo it was more than sexual assault.
So now Qatar “regrets” what happened! Beneath the glitzy surface of a modern country lies the iron fisted autocracy that the region´s culture dictates.
Qatar may not have noticed but the international media all over the world is rightly slamming its image and the matter has a life of its own now,
A female friend of mine also had to go through the same procedure to obtain a US green card. Let a male doctor examine her make and in addition must take many different blood test including a HIV test and a bunch of intimate personal questions relating to sex such as when was the last time she had sex, how many times, etc… she had an awkward feeling.
*typo correction: examine her naked
WAS QATAR JUSTIFIED IN STRIP SEARCHING FEMALE PASSENGERS AFTER AFTER BABY FOUND ABANDONED IN AIRPORT BATHROOM?
No. They should have just asked if they are ok with the check.
Mother should have bee found and properly punished. Later on she can be treated for her psychological issues.