It is Friday evening in downtown Doha, and Souq Waqif is heaving. The popular bazaar is packed with locals and tourists shopping for souvenirs, smoking hubble-bubble pipes and dining al fresco. Everyone is enjoying the warm spring evening and hypnotic music.
Everyone except men who appear to be from south Asia. As they wander through the souq, they are briskly intercepted by police, and appear to be directed straight to the exit.
The scene is repeated at Aspire Park, part of a sports and leisure complex surrounding the Khalifa stadium, one of the venues for the 2022 World Cup. Children practise their football skills, a boy glides by on a hoverboard and families picnic on the grass. But as a group of three south Asian males approach the park, they are quickly stopped by a man with a radio transceiver, who waves them away, saying the park is for families only.
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