Qatar Airways Sued Over Alleged Forced Vaginal Examinations
In what is being described as a “David and Goliath battle,” Qatar Airways and Qatar’s aviation authority are being sued in an Australian Federal Court by a group of women who claimed they were subjected to physical examinations including invasive and non-consensual vaginal examinations at Qatar’s Doha Airport in October 2020.“After two years of trying to sit down with the State of Qatar and resolve the matter amicably, this group of teachers, nurses, and artists were left with no alternative but to take on this David and Goliath battle,” Damian Sturzaker of Marquis Lawyers told Lawyers Weekly and Australia Aviation in a joint interview.
Marquis Lawyers is representing the five women in their suit which was filed in the New South Wales Registry of the Federal Court in Australia.The five were among 13 women flying from Doha to Sydney, Australia, on Qatar Airways flight QR908 on October 2, 2020, who were escorted without explanation from the plane.
Four of the women party to the suit said they were then locked in an ambulance with a masked woman who conducted non-consensual vaginal examinations.
One female was subjected to the examination despite being 52 years old, and another was forced to leave her five-month-old baby on the plane.
