A young Mexican woman named Paola Schietekat was working for the World Cup committee in Qatar when she was, according to her own account, raped by a colleague. She foolishly reported the attack to the police, which shows that she had not been briefed on the ins and outs of Islamic law before taking up residence in Qatar. Sharia sets a very high bar for a woman to prove rape: there must be four witnesses to the act who can confirm it was non-consensual. Otherwise, the woman has in effect confessed that she had sex outside of marriage, and will be punished accordingly.

Which is what happened to Ms. Schietekat. The alleged rapist denied the accusation, and is off the hook, while his victim has fled the country to avoid a sentence of 100 lashes and seven years in a Qatari prison.

Below are excerpts from the Daily Mail article:

Female World Cup official flees Qatar to avoid a sentence of 100 lashes and seven years in jail for ‘extramarital sex’ after reporting that she was RAPED

A female World Cup official is facing a sentence of 100 lashes and seven years in jail for ‘extramarital sex’ after she reported being raped while working in Qatar.

Paola Schietekat, 28, from Mexico, was working for the World Cup organising committee when she complained that she was raped by an associate who broke into her apartment and threatened to kill her.

She reported the June 6, 2021 attack to the Qatari authorities, who responded by accusing her of having an affair and charged her with ‘extramarital sex’, which is illegal in the Gulf state.

Schietekat was told by lawyers that one way of avoiding conviction was to marry her attacker but instead decided to flee the country, leaving behind what she called her ‘dream job’.

The charges against Schietekat, who is a behavioural economist, are still valid and she is expected to be sentenced in absentia on March 6.

Schietekat, writing on Julio Astillero, explained the attacker was able to gain access to her apartment in Doha because it is common for residents to leave their doors unlocked and rely on the security of the building.

The man, who Schietekat said she considered a friend, allegedly managed to wrestle her to the floor and rape her, leaving her arms, shoulders and back covered in bruises.

Schietekat said she took pictures of the scene and documented what had happened on her phone before fleeing her home and spending the night in a hotel, fearing her attacker would return.

[…]

The alleged attacker had told police that he and Schietekat were in a relationship, so officers asked to look at her phone to find evidence of intimacy, which she denied.

Police then asked her to undergo a virginity test, accusing Schietekat of extramarital relations, before recommending the case to the public prosecutor’s office to bring charges against her.

Her attacker was acquitted on charges of assault because ‘there were no cameras pointing directly at the door of the apartment, so there was no way to verify that the assault happened’, Schietekat said.

She was then warned by lawyers that one of the only ways to avoid a conviction would be to marry her alleged attacker.

Schietekat chose to flee the country instead, leaving behind what she later described as her ‘dream job’ and was helped out of Doha by the World Cup committee.

Hat tip: WD.