David Beckham may have smiled self-satisfiedly as he rode in a limousine provided by the Qatari government through Doha’s futuristic skyline on Monday morning.
Having obtained an astounding deal, reputedly for £150 million over ten years, to function as a global ambassador for the world’s wealthiest state, he was there as the ‘face’ of the World Cup, which kicks off here on November 20 amid massive controversy. Sheikha Al- Mayssa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the sister of Qatar’s ruling emir, will preside over a famous fashion competition for emerging Arab designers, where his wife Victoria will soon join him.
Additionally, members of the Beckham family are anticipated to attend the football competition. They will watch their father treated like a visiting statesman, with his lovely face on city billboards.
On Monday, though, the former England captain had an appointment with a completely different type of “spice girl”: a 60-year-old woman whose homegrown enterprise has made her an idol for progressive women in the Middle East.
Madam Shams Al-Qassabi began mixing spices for a living roughly 20 years ago, after her husband took an early retirement from his position as an oil executive. Currently, she provides the royal family of Qatar, embassies, and five-star hotels.
There are images of her posing with Hollywood stars such as Tilda Swinton, model Jodie Kidd, and ex-footballers such as Chelsea’s John Terry on the walls of her café in Doha’s central marketplace, where she remains the only female merchant.
A few weeks ago, when Beckham’s new paymasters produced his first promotional film — a breezy, goofy videoblog meant to promote Qatar as a stopover tourist destination — he had to be filmed having a typical breakfast prepared by the famed Madam Shams.
David Beckham is seated with Madame Shams Al Qassabi and her daughter, Eman (left)
Doha, the capital of the world’s richest state, features a gorgeous billboard of David Beckham.
Becks, who has professed his joy in being branded a “gay icon,” struck up a connection with the abaya-clad Qatari spice chef and returned this week for another public relations shoot.
You may believe that this is a cute story. Exactly the type of intercultural camaraderie that David Beckham undoubtedly had in mind when he anticipated that this World Cup would be “a force for good.”
But I fear to think what the Beckhams’ liberal pals, including Sir Elton John, godfather to their boys Brooklyn and Romeo, would have thought of the chat I had with Madam Shams’ daughter Eman last week.
She is a highly educated 35-year-old woman pursuing a master’s degree at Ulster University (which offers classes in Qatar) while teaching at the children’s museum in Doha. As his interpreter, she featured heavily in Beckham’s promotional video.
She exemplified a new generation of enlightened Qataris, the type of lady the emir and his family claim to respect, as she proudly recounted the story of her mother’s groundbreaking independence.
Victoria Beckham will be the face of a major fashion competition in the wealthy Gulf state.
Eman erupted, though, when I questioned if her liberal beliefs extended to the LGBTQ population, whose state-sanctioned persecution is one of the many reasons why Qatar is largely regarded as unworthy to host the World Cup.
“No, that is inadmissible!” She exclaimed in surprise. “It contradicts human nature, science, and our culture!” Here, we are not beasts!
God has distinguished humans from animals. God made us as male and female. This only occurs when persons have been sexually assaulted (as youngsters) and thus developed a fear of their own gender.
I was without words. She also alleged that Western nations, such as the United Kingdom, were attempting to defame Qatar. She then provided a list of countries that do not permit homosexuality, curiously including Germany.
Remember that this was a skilled educator who influences the thought processes of young Qataris and the mother of five children. Her sickening and profoundly confused scream reinforced the message of human rights organizations: that homosexual football fans should avoid this World Cup, despite indications from the emir’s palace that, at least for the duration of the event, there will be some tolerance. Well, to a certain extent, yes.
People may not be jailed for exhibiting the earliest signs of non-heterosexual behavior, but who knows how the authorities will use the high-tech monitoring system I observed in the NASA-like command center that will monitor the eight World Cup stadiums?
September pictures show people arriving at the Lusail Stadium on the outskirts of Doha
Nor are the white-robed, all-male Qatari police (the promised introduction of female officers has not yet occurred) likely to risk an international scandal by raiding hotel rooms and fan-zones and dragging people away to be detained and beaten, as they routinely do when the world’s eyes are turned away.
And it is quite unlikely that visiting LGBT supporters will be forced to attend Qatar’s nefarious seminars aimed to ‘fix’ sexual orientation.
This is the opinion of Dr. Nasser Mohamed, 35, a Qatari national who “defected” to the United States and released an open letter this week encouraging Beckham to speak out on the subject.
Already overburdened with the responsibility of preserving order among an anticipated 1.5 million supporters, he asserts that the police will lack the means to target LGBTQ fans.
However, he adds that does not guarantee their safety. In contrast,
For Qataris who are suspected of being homosexual or transgender are frequently attacked on the street without consequence. His recommendation to such supporters is to act as if they are heterosexual.
What a travesty that he feels compelled to offer such guidance at a 2022 major athletic event. As Beckham has yet to respond publicly to the letter, ‘Dr. Nas’ believes that his £150 million salary is essentially “blood money.”
Beckham has brunch with Madame Shams Al Qassabi in Qatar’s Souk Wafiq.
‘Many individuals who reach his kind of fortune [the Beckhams’ combined value is reported to be close to £380 million] seek a feeling of purpose — to leave the world a better place,’ he told me from his exiled residence in San Francisco.
It is disappointing to see that David Beckham, a global icon, is not doing this.
Many would concur, notably his former Manchester United teammate Eric Cantona, who has stated that he will never accept the Qatari riyal.
One need only spend a short time in Qatar to comprehend the symmetry between this wealth-obsessed outpost and the Beckhams (and make no mistake, Victoria is just as enamored with this homophobic emirate as her husband)… and to see that, despite the former England captain’s lofty humanitarian aspirations, his union with Qatar is a match made in heaven.
Both are innovators. The narrative behind the unstoppable rise of Brand Beckham, a business that today encompasses fashion and beauty, sport and electric cars, as well as the couple’s coordinated image rights, is well-known.
Less so compared to Qatar. A mere 70 years ago, when the first oil wells began blackening the dunes, it was an unloved British protectorate consisting of a 100-mile-long strip of empty sand protruding into the Persian Gulf.
Many of its 25,000 inhabitants followed a nomadic lifestyle; others risked their lives plunging to the ocean floor to extract pearls from oyster shells.
Today, Doha, around which all World Cup venues have been constructed, is a megacity of staggering size and ambition.
As dawn breaks and the sun burns through the haze, the steel-and-glass towers glitter like a mirage in the desert. In comparison, London’s Docklands, which are currently 50% owned by Qatar, would resemble a Lego model. Saudi Arabia, the only country with which Qatar shares a border, is skeptical of the emirate’s rapid growth, as nearly all of its 3 million inhabitants — roughly 90 percent of them are poor migrant laborers — reside in and around the capital.
In the meantime, its hungry sovereign wealth fund devours prime assets abroad, including real estate, art collections, corporate organizations, elite sports teams, and educational institutions.
Now, its multibillionaire masters include David Beckham in their extensive portfolio.
Sir Robert Walpole is rumored to have declared, “Every man has his price,” and wealthier men than Beckham, 47, would have been enticed by the offer of £150 million. However, why were the Qataris so eager to hire him?
The instant response is that they view him as a well-groomed English gentleman and believe he will provide this tainted competition the one thing it lacks: a sense of decency and fair play.
However, they have plans well beyond the World Cup. Qatar is envious of neighboring Dubai, the premier winter sun resort for Europeans, and desires to replicate its tourism success.
And who better than Beckham to extol its cultural traditions and cuisine (‘everyone knows I’m a foodie’)? (He is recorded admiring a display of desert falconry.)
The Qataris have definitely fallen for Beckham’s wholesome English image — several individuals have told me how amazed they were that he waited in line for hours to see the Queen lying in state — and believe he can attract families to the bazaars and beaches.
Counting the number of times he mentions Victoria and children in that beautifully crafted film is sufficient evidence that he was hired for his fatherly and husbandly appeal.
At the Al Wakra Souq Hotel, where the England team will stay throughout the tournament, one of David Beckham’s many admirers, a Qatari businessman, told me he was even willing to overlook Beckham’s 65 tattoos, despite the fact that Islamic teaching prohibits decorating the flesh.
Additionally, the hotel is providing concessions for this World Cup. This week, at the request of the FA, a swimming pool was rapidly dug.)
All of these factors may explain Beckham’s silence on the LGBTQ subject, but they surely do not justify it.
Gary Neville, another of his old Manchester United teammates, was also exposed this week to have slept with the Qataris by taking a contract to be a World Cup commentator on its state-run sports channel.
In other respects, his betrayal appears even more abhorrent, since this self-proclaimed man of the Manchester people squanders few opportunity to highlight his leftist leanings.
Worse, Neville is accused of hypocrisy in regards to a subject about which he objected loudly just weeks before while filming a Sky documentary in Qatar: the working conditions of migrant laborers.
They are recruited primarily from the subcontinent of India, the Philippines, and Africa, where the pay are considerably lower than in Qatar. Those with whom I spoke reported receiving less than £20 each day. They are housed in dormitories resembling cells and forced to work in temperatures surpassing 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
Official Qatari data indicate that only three workers have perished while constructing stadiums and other World Cup-related infrastructure. Since the £6.5 billion building blitz began in 2011, a remarkable investigation by Mail on Sunday journalist Nick Harris has uncovered that the deaths of 2,823 immigrants of working age have been classified as unexplained.
It is thought that the actual number of deaths on tournament building sites exceeds 6,000.
You did indeed read that accurately. Thousands of lives have been sacrificed so that Qatar, where camel racing is more popular than football, can luxuriate in global spotlight for one month.
Before signing his lucrative contract, Neville appeared genuinely astonished by the housing provided for these foreign laborers.
As I observed a group of Bangladeshi laborers toiling in the dirty hole that will soon become the England team’s mandatory swimming pool, I too felt anger and guilt.
On Wednesday, when I inspected the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, where England will face Wales, the emotions returned. It is an obviously spectacular facility; but, hearing boasts about its low carbon footprint as millions of barrels of Qatari oil polluted the world seemed somewhat ironic.
A Nepalese Uber driver drove me there and informed me that his construction worker friend was electrocuted years ago when a live cable fell into a wet trench where he was working.
Outside the stadium, I encountered a 33-year-old Ghanaian who was tarmacking a jogging track around one of the training pitches — one of the many last-minute activities that must be finished by November 20 in order to present Qatar in the best possible light.
As sweat poured out beneath his blue hard hat, he explained that he had been working on World Cup projects for the past six years, saving a few pounds each week from his £400 monthly income in order to one day be able to marry his fiancée, whom he missed terribly.
He would like to get a ticket to one of Ghana’s games in the tournament but is unsure if he will have the time or money to do so. Friday is his one day off per week, and he uses it to sleep.
His existence is brutal and sad, although he did not say so. Rather, he emphasized the compassion of many Qataris, who provide him food and water when he is working near their homes.
Such young males are unlikely to appear in future David Beckham advertising videos.
Nor are the tens of thousands of ‘unnatural’ members of Qatari society who live in terror of being dragged away to be abused and brainwashed.
The fact that this little Middle Eastern enclave with its medieval mindset was able to purchase the right to host the World Cup will go down in history as a scandal.
This depravity is compounded by the fact that two of England’s most revered and recognizable former players are adding a patina of respectability to this audacious hijacking.
Nevertheless, when we turn on our televisions later this fall and the drama begins, all of this may be forgotten.
The unscrupulous sheikhs, who are using this athletic event to flaunt their huge fortune and promote their desire for power and influence, are well aware of this truth.