Qatar: most despicable country in the world?

Because of its oil wealth and dominance of much of the world's media (the Qatari Royal family owns Al Jazeera and has major shareholdings in other international news outlets) the extent of Qatar's depravity is rarely raised in the main stream media. That is why you will not have heard news items like this one from last week when Qatar suddenly banned all women from working in boy's schools.

The ban included all women working in the school administration, accounting, social services and public relations, local Arabic daily Al Watan reported on Thursday. Qatari teachers and administrators were relocated based on their home addresses while non-Qataris were handed letters of termination 

The decision by FIFA to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was the most bizarre and corrupt decision in the history of sport (and yes it was worse than awarding the 1936 Olympics to Nazi Germany because it least that decision had a semblance of rationale from a climate and facilities perspective).

Since that decision Qatar has become the prime international sponsor or Sunni terrorism and is behind the financing of the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and, of course, Hamas in Gaza (to whom it pledged 2 billion dollars just two days before Hamas launched its unprovoked missile barrage against Israel in November 2012). Qatar is also financing the Al Qaeda groups that are increasingly dominant in the Syrian opposition to Assad.

FIFA likes to pretend it is passionately obsessed with equality and anti-racism, which is one of the reasons why its Qatar decision was so disgraceful. But don't expect FIFA to backtrack even after the recent revelations.

Qatar is slightly less repressive than Saudi Arabia, but at least Saudi has absolutely no pretencions about what it is and what it is not. That is what makes Qatar probably the most despicable country in the world.