"I grew up in Qatar as a queer person. In Qatar, LGBTQ+ people are silenced. Stepping out of line comes with severe punishment. It is not safe to challenge your family, the country, or religious teachings. You are forced to disappear in order to survive. The open and vibrant Qatar presented through Art Basel is not the state that exists."
"The system I grew up in Qatar was a totalitarian, authoritarian dictatorship. A ruling family keeps passing control of the country and all of its resources from generation to generation. It's an extremely classist system: who your family is and your relationship to the ruling family dictate the power dynamics."
"I grew up in what I now recognize as a propagandized environment. It was a nation-first, strongly Islamist upbringing where we were taught to honor God and the nation above all. We were raised with duties, and one of those duties was to form a family. I was taught that I did not have the freedom to believe differently."
Qatar operates as an authoritarian state controlled by a ruling family that maintains strict social hierarchies based on family connections and relationships to power. LGBTQ+ people face severe criminalization and are forced into silence to survive. The country's propagandized environment emphasizes nation and Islamic teachings above individual freedoms, denying citizens—including heterosexual individuals—basic autonomy over their bodies and relationships. Art Basel Qatar's February 2026 debut presents a misleading image of vibrant cultural freedom that contradicts the oppressive reality experienced by queer citizens who must flee to live authentically.
Read at Hyperallergic
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