Punishment for violating modesty under Qatari law Thursday, 23 December 2010 00:48

There is no doubt that the Penal Code defines the framework of freedom enjoyed by individuals in the community and the Criminal Code sets specific examples of the prohibited works that put the offender under the penalty of law.

Qatari Law states that the provisions of Islamic law will be applied if the accused or the victim is Muslim concerning the crimes related to theft, adultery, defamation, drinking alcohol, apostasy and crimes of retribution and blood money.

In other cases the provisions of the penal code will be applied to anyone who commits in Qatar the crimes set forth herein.

The crime is considered a committed one in Qatar if any given crime took place or the crime achieved its result or it was intended to be achieved.

Due to the fact that the State of Qatar is one of the countries which attracted labour from all parts of the world, they come to this country to work from different cultures, customs, traditions and beliefs and all these cultures and habits meet in one community and you find in the Gulf in general, cultures and customs that are different from each other and from the habits and traditions of the people of the host country.

So there are some behaviors committed by immigrants which put them under penalty of law whether they know that this behaviour or these acts are crimes in this community.

The argument of the accused or his excuse will not be accepted as the penal code is an order that is supposed to be known.

The behaviour and the acts criminalized under the law are immoral sexual activities and the number of such cases is increasing in the court day by day due to the lack of awareness among migrants and ignorance about the penal code and these reasons can’t exempt the guilty from punishment.

The Article 281 of the Penal Code No. 11/2004 referring to the crime of adultery and crimes related to modesty states:

“Everyone who committed the sexual crime with a female without coercion or threat or deception, or if she was underaged (below 16 years of age) will be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years and if the female agreed willingly then she will be punished with the same punishment’.

As a result of this crime the perpetrators will be deported from the country due to the negative impact on society whereas the law binds the court to give the order to deport a foreigner from the state after the completion of the punishment considering it a crime that violates the morality of the country.

Therefore, the residents must comply with the penal code of the state and abide by its provisions and no one argues that the act is permissible in his native country.