Isaac+G’s+2016+OpEd+Article


 * Slavers Drink from the World Cup**

The 2022 World Cup is currently scheduled to take place in Education City, Qatar. It's time for the world to admit that this is a mistake of colossal proportions. The workers currently building the stadium have had their passports seized by their employers. They are not allowed to leave the country, and can be imprisoned without trial for offending their bosses. They are paid merely £ 120 per month for six days a week of up to 16 hours a day of grueling labor. Not only that, but the workers are overworked in such intense heat and in such deplorably unsafe conditions that The International Trade Union Confederacy estimates that 4,000 workers will have died by the completion of the stadium in 2022. Up to 1,200 migrant workers held in the country have already died constructing the stadium.

As if the abomination of slavery being directly involved in the construction of the World Cup Stadium were not enough to convince any moral being of the inhumanity of allowing Qatar to host such an important event, Qatar also has plenty of other human rights abuses. For example, a woman has no legal say in who they marry. Instead, this is decided upon by their "male guardian." Marital rape is completely legal in Qatar, meaning that it is perfectly legal for a father to force their daughter into a lifetime of abuse and rape, with the daugher having no legal recourse.

It's understandable to enjoy watching soccer, and even more understandable to want to watch the best soccer teams on the planet face off in a patriotic, nationalistic tournament. But, anyone who will look past state sponsored slavery, murder, and rape so that they can enjoy a soccer game is despicable. It's time to stop Qatar. It's time to stop FIFA. Boycott FIFA. Boycott Qatar. And fight the planned location of the 2022 world cup until this international embarrassment is averted. It is time for the people to decide that basic human rights outweigh the need to watch sports.