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Jennifer Lopez is urged to scrap the private concert for Qatar Airways that she’s scheduled to perform tonight at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta by the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents nearly 60,000 flight attendants at 18 airlines. An open letter from Sara Nelson, the association’s international president, cites human rights concerns in imploring Lopez to cancel.
Qatar Airways disputes the allegations.
Lopez is scheduled to perform for about 45 minutes tonight at an event celebrating the airline’s start of service to and from Atlanta, hosted by Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker.
From the association’s open letter to Lopez:
“The problem is that Qatar Airways Group is owned by the nation of Qatar, where being LGBT is illegal, punishable by up to five years in prison. Other illicit sexual relations are punished by flogging, the penalty for adultery being 100 lashes. Labor Unions are also illegal in Qatar, where immigrants make up 90 percent of the workforce. Upon entering the country, their passports are seized and the migrant workers are often forced into slavery. Those who protest or try to leave are thrown in prison.
Qatar is one of the worst countries in the world for human trafficking and slavery. Human Rights groups are lining up against Qatar Airways and there will be a massive protest outside the Fox Theater on May 17.
Qatar’s Chief Executive Officer, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker maintains ‘With every new destination we serve, we seek to become a part of that community.’ This is concerning especially in Atlanta, the bastion of the civil rights movement and birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr.”
It’s not the first time Qatar Airways has faced protests. In March, the Boston Globe reported, “A human rights watchdog group has launched a targeted local advertising campaign calling for a boycott of Qatar Airways days before the carrier begins daily service out of Boston. Washington-based Alliance for Workers Against Repression Everywhere, or AWARE, began running radio ads, including on WBZ news radio, Monday denouncing alleged human rights violations against workers by the airline and the State of Qatar, which owns it.”
Mike Lux, co-founder of Democracy Partners, denounced the airline in a Huffington Post piece titled “Human Rights Abuses Arriving at Boston Logan, Courtesy of Qatar Airways.”
“The ‘luxury’ airline is owned by the State of Qatar, an oil-rich dictatorship in the Middle East on the border of Saudi Arabia, where migrant workers are dying by the thousands in deplorable working conditions akin to slavery,” he wrote.
A 2014 piece titled in the Swedish newspaper Expressen titled “The truth about the luxury of Qatar Airways” detailed one flight attendant’s experience.
“The chance to leave Qatar is used as leverage in a game of punishment, where six months of rejected exit visas is common punishment for a flight attendant who has done something wrong and issued a warning,” it reported.
A Qatar Airways news release posted today on its web site does not address the matter but rather hails a new summer reading program it has launched in Atlanta. The release, titled “World’s Best Airline seeks to inspire a love for exploration through reading and travel,” reports on a partnership with the Atlanta public school system:
Yesterday, 500 students each received their first book for the summer, courtesy of Qatar Airways and the Atlanta Public Schools, to kick-start the ‘School’s Out, Reading Is In! program. Qatar Airways Cabin Crew and staff from the Americas office visited the Heritage Academy Elementary School to gift the books and share stories with the children on how important reading – and traveling – is to expanding personal horizons.
The ‘School’s Out, Reading Is In!’ program inspires students to maintain their academic progress through the summer holiday by providing each student from K-5 grades with books, grade-appropriate. Qatar Airways is partnering with the Atlanta Public Schools to support this endeavor, and to further inspire students to explore the world through reading
“‘At Qatar Airways, we believe in the power of travel to expand our understanding of the world,’ said Qatar Airways’ Vice President of the Americas, Mr. Gunter Saurwein. ‘A love of reading is the first step in cultivating a life of exploration, and the Atlanta Public Schools program is a powerful contribution to these students’ development. When these students are older, we will be ready to make their dreams come true by flying them around the world, so they can experience the places they read about this summer.’”
Credit:AJC
