Women forced to undergo invasive exams in Qatar

Katie Bacchus explores the ongoing investigation into invasive searches of female passengers at Hamad International Airport and women’s rights under Qatari Law

On 2^nd October 2020, selected female passengers from a number of countries, including Australia and the UK, were marched off a plane at Doha’s Hamad International Airport. The women were transferred from the Qatar Airlines flight bound for Sydney into ambulances and forced to undergo invasive gynaecological examinations to determine if they had recently given birth. None of the women gave informed consent for the procedure or were told what was happening. It was later reported that females on nine other Qatar flights were also examined.^[1]

The reasoning behind this blatant disregard for human rights was an abandoned baby found in a toilet rubbish bin at Doha Airport. In making the decision to actively pursue the woman who had left her baby to die, a cohort of innocent women were subject to appalling treatment by airport officials. The baby survived and is in the care of authorities, but the woman who gave birth to the child has not yet been found.

Proposition 22: A dark day for gig economy workers

Ryan Evans assesses the impact of Proposition 22 on gig-economy workers in California, and the exploitation of democratic procedures by corporate interests to undermine workers’ rights.

On 3rd November, ‘Proposition 22, App-Based Drivers as Contractors and Labor Policies Initiative (2020)’, or ‘Prop 22’ as it became widely known, was approved by Californians at the ballot box. Its approval represents a significant victory for ride-hailing tech giants Uber and Lyft, who will now be able to sidestep AB5, a new labor law introduced in 2019 which re-classified their drivers as employees rather than independent contractors.