https://www.elcordillerano.com.ar/n...anos-de-carcel-a-una-mexicana-que-fue-abusada
The Mexican woman said that in her adolescence she was also a victim of sexual violence and that she wanted to make the complaint with the intention that she would not experience the same thing again.
With the evidence in hand, she approached the Mexican consulate in Qatar and explained to the authorities, in the little Arabic she speaks, what happened.
“Asking me if I wanted a restraining order, to do nothing, or to go to the last resort, I froze, from shock, fear and lack of sleep, and turned to see the consul, who recommended that I go to the last resort. I signed the statement in Arabic and gave the details of the aggressor. Hours later, at nine o’clock at night, they called me on the phone to urgently go to the police station,” the woman said.
The police interrogated her in Arabic for more than three hours. It turns out that her rapist had excused herself by claiming that she was his girlfriend, and that she had given him permission to enter.
In Qatar, having an extramarital relationship is punishable by up to seven years in prison, and in some cases the sentence includes a hundred lashes; that was the sentence that now threatened the victim.
“The solution that my lawyer and the legal representative of my assailant gave me was relatively simple: marry him. To close the case that the State of Qatar opened against me, I only had to marry my assailant.”
After months of a judicial process that does not end, Schietekat publicly denounced the Mexican consulate for “the lack of a protection protocol for victims of violence with a gender perspective,” which the consul Luis Ancona demonstrated by not informing her that the complaint he recommended making could come back to haunt her; and to the international community, that it “has excused, and even defended archaic monarchies that maintain laws that promote modern slavery,” all under “the shadow of great sporting or cultural events.”
A final hearing will be held on March 6, where she hopes that a decision will be made that annuls that sentence and allows Schietekat to return to Qatar and resume her work.
