Qatar: TS/TG people - human beings or behavioural deviants?
http://birdofparadox.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/qatar-tstg-people-human-beings-or-behavioural-deviants/4/27/09
Compared with certain other Arab states - Saudi Arabia, for example - Qatar might appear to have relatively liberal laws, even though it's still not as liberal as some other Persian Gulf countries. However, since the mid-1990s, Qatar has been undergoing a period of liberalisation and modernisation which brought many positive changes. For example, Qatar became the first Arab country of the Persian Gulf to extend suffrage to women. Nevertheless, the country still lags behind the UAE or Bahrain in terms of more westernised laws and though plans are being made for more development, the government is cautious. (Via Wikipedia)
Regrettably, with regard to TS/TG people, in some areas this caution seems to manifest itself in a rather old-fashioned but nonetheless toxic form of transphobia, as can been seen from a recent report in the Gulf Times.
