World Cup: Qatar hospitals will not ask women if married

Women will not be asked about their marital status when seeking medical treatment during this month’s World Cup in Qatar, which criminalises sexual relations outside marriage, organisers said. “Nobody will be asked if she is married or not,” the organising committee’s healthcare spokesperson Yousuf al-Maslamani said Thursday. The conservative Gulf state, where the World Cup kicks off on November 20, punishes extra-marital affairs with up to seven years in prison, though rights groups say such sentences have not been enforced for many years. Some embassies had previously advised pregnant women to provide proof of marriage if they seek medical treatment while in Qatar.