Sportswashing or sports strategy? Why a 2035 Women’s World Cup in Saudi Arabia is dividing the world of football
On 12 March 2022, Saudi Arabia carried out its largest mass execution within the nation’s fashionable historical past. 81 males had been executed after being accused of varied offences, together with terrorism and weapons smuggling. 6 Might Saudi Arabia be the venue of the 2035 Girls’s World Cup?Credit score: 2023 Getty Photographs Within the wake of the executions, the brother of one of many executed males, Mustafa al-Khayyat fled to Germany in concern of his life. He has since told the BBC that his brother’s killing, and the killing of most of the different males, was primarily based on a ‘lie’. A recent report by Reprieve and the European Saudi organization for Human Rights concluded {that a} lack of transparency within the judicial system made public scrutiny of choices inconceivable. Authorized choices are taken behind closed doorways, it’s forbidden to publish court docket paperwork and court docket hearings are sometimes postponed indefinitely. Learn Extra in Girls’s Soccer In recent times, Saudi Arabia has confronted criticism over its human rights violations given its use of the loss of life penalty, its criminalisation of homosexuality and the dearth of freedom afforded to girls. The Gulf State have…