# Qatar authorities fail to identify the woman who abandoned her baby at the airport **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 26, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931 "2020-10-26T13:40:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931/1 "2020-10-26T13:40:11Z")
But not before they examined the women that accessed the area, according to [this article](https://japantoday.com/category/world/qatar-'forcibly-examined'-women-drawing-angry-diplomatic-response). _“Female passengers flying from Qatar were subjected to invasive searches after a premature baby was found abandoned in an airport bathroom, in an incident labelled “offensive” and “grossly inappropriate” by Australia’s government.”_ Qatar, which has draconian laws regarding pregnancy and childbirth, is determined to identify the mother of the newly born baby, who is being taken care of by professionals at the moment. Australia has expressed its protest as to how its citizens were treated under these circumstances. I think the entire situation was a very delicate one and I wonder what should have been the most civilized and effective approach in this matter. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931/2 "2020-10-26T15:23:18Z")
One hopes they treated the female staff and the female government enforcement workers the same way. Well, actually I don’t hope that. Better to not be barbaric pricks about the whole thing. But the point is that wherever the baby was found, you can be assured more people than just inbound foreign passengers had access to the area over the timeframe in question. And everybody who had access should be investigated in a humane and equal fashion. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931/3 "2020-10-26T15:40:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > And everybody who had access should be investigated in a humane and equal fashion. We don’t have any additional information on the event, but based on what I’ve heard about Qatar I believe they were more abusive toward their own female citizens. I may be wrong, of course, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ranch\_Dip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranch_dip/32/5238_2.png) [@Ranch\_Dip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranch_Dip)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931/4 "2020-10-26T22:32:22Z")
Really? All females? Or just those of child bearing age? Why? So the person who didn’t feel they could safely keep her baby, you want them and every other female treated as criminals? Like, really?? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931/5 "2020-10-26T22:50:28Z")
You didn’t listen very carefully to what I said. What I wanted was for the authorities to not do anything. But if they were going to act like prehistoric jerks, don’t do it just to visiting foreigners. Attack your own people equally barbarically. That’s how revolutions to end the barbarianism get started. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931/7 "2020-10-27T00:01:07Z")
I saw this story and was horrified. I also think that the culprit is most likely among people who work at the airport, rather than passengers. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931/8 "2020-10-27T00:52:56Z")
All countries treat foreign citizens badly, and crime suspects badly, and foreign citizen crime suspects very badly. It would be gross hypocrisy for Australians to think that Australia is any different. The only good thing I can see coming out of this is if it happened, in the short term, to provoke better behavior by Australian Border Control and airport Federal Police. But I don’t think that’s likely. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931/9 "2020-10-27T05:06:09Z")
I strongly believe the local women working for the airport or caught on camera in the area where the baby was found went through a similar experience (or worse). In Qatar the authorities make sure that they identify every baby born out of wedlock and place the mother in jail. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qatar-authorities-fail-to-identify-the-woman-who-abandoned-her-baby-at-the-airport/923931/10 "2020-10-29T17:21:54Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > But the point is that wherever the baby was found, you can be assured more people than just inbound foreign passengers had access to the area over the timeframe in question. And everybody who had access should be investigated in a humane and equal fashion. 95% of Doha airport traffic is transfer traffic. First time I stopped at Doha and existed, it was a struggle to find the way to the passport control, it was me, a Polish lady who spoke zero English and a married couple who didn’t take the “connections” tunnel. There were about 5 people at immigration ahead of us. Way out there was only a handful of people checking in, the flight was full, with again, as you guessed it, connecting passengers So suspicion was probably well founded. Maybe the method of investigation was a bit…dated, but regardless if you had ever been to Doha, you would know why they didn’t bother checking any local.