A homophobic poster deployed in the middle of the street. Here is the image that is currently relayed on Facebook and Twitter. We see the rainbow flag crossed out in a cross. Below, silhouettes representing two adults, a man and a woman, and two children take shelter under an umbrella. On the umbrella, we can read the expression “Islamic law”.
“Qatar is starting to put up anti-LGBT billboards in cities,” is the caption to this image. The caption is named after the Facebook Insta Video page, which has over 666,000 followers.
The erroneous legend has also circulated in English on other sites.
FAKE OFF
homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, a country that is due to host the World Cup in November. The NGO Human Rights Watch reported last November the story of a man arrested for “alleged homosexual behavior”. However, this sign with a homophobic message was displayed in the city of Riffa, located in Bahrain, another Gulf country.
We tracked down this image through a reverse image search. One of the results of this search linked to the Reddit forum, where a user indicated that the image was taken in this country. This Internet user was referring to a Twitter user, who also indicated that the image was taken in Bahrain. Finally, in the replies to this tweet, an anonymous account confirmed that the image had indeed been taken in the country, in post another pic display panel and specifying where the photo was taken.
By doing a search in Google maps using the coordinates provided by this Internet user, we see that the panel has been successfully installed in Riffa, in front of the premises of a religious association. The buildings visible in the background are the same as those visible in the photo that is relayed on social networks.
This association had also posted the homophobic poster on its Twitter account on June 12, as picked it up our colleagues from Misbar.
Homosexuality is not illegal in Bahrain. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs guest LGBTQIA+ people to be vigilant in the kingdom, noting that “alleged homosexual acts have been subject to prosecution for ‘indecency’ and ‘immorality'” and that the country “experiences occasional outbreaks of homophobia” .