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Susanne Andersen after being knocked from her bike (TV2 still).PNGNorwegian federation claims Qatari police driver deliberately knocked female rider off bike at World Championships
Norway’s national cycling federation has claimed that a police officer in Qatar deliberately knocked one of its riders from her bike during the UCI Road World Championships in Doha last month – and says it may have been because she was considered inappropriately dressed for a woman.
The claim was made in a report on the television channel TV2 by Hans Falk, head of sport at the Norges Cykleforbund, who said the incident happened after Susanne Andersen had completed the junior women’s time trial.
Falk said he was advised not to report the incident to police due to concerns that the 18-year-old, who would take bronze in the junior women’s road race later in the week, would not be allowed to leave the country.
“I’m convinced it was a deliberate act by the policeman who drove straight at Susanne,” he said.
Asked whether that was an exaggeration without evidence to back it up, he conceded, “I cannot say for sure. But there were no skid marks, and he had no sympathy.
“Instead, he lit a cigarette and was talking on his phone without a care for the girl who was lying on the ground screaming.”
Andersen, who suffered nothing worse than grazes and bruises, although her bike was badly damaged, said at her home in Stavanger, “Imagine how bad it could have been?”
Falk put forward one theory that could explain why the police officer may have deliberately driven at the rider.
“We were told that it isn’t that unusual for women with bare legs, considered to be dressed in a challenging manner, to be run over,” he explained.
While the Gulf state does not expect non-Muslim women to comply with its laws regarding dress, foreigners are expected to dress “modestly,” and a social media campaign two years ago urged visitors not to wear items such as shorts or leggings.
Following the incident involving Andersen, Falk says he tried to get the UCI to warn other countries but was told that they were guests in Qatar and had to respect traffic laws.
TV2 reported the UCI as saying that “The situation was handled at the time and reported to the public authorities via the local organising committee.”
The channel added that it had received no reply to a request for a comment from the authorities in Qatar.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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36 comments
Well it's relevant to the thread now...!
They tell me it made days down t'pit pass more quickly.
Yeah wonderful place, this is now on BBC online....
British woman 'arrested in Dubai after reporting rapehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38013351
@davel
She alleged a rape that couldn't be proven, and in doing so admitted to a bunch of other serious offences. We've locked up rape accusers here, and there was a famous case in Texas recently too because she wouldn't testify.
Rape is a can of worms everywhere, especially here in the UK. Look at that Evans footballer - people are suggesting he sues the accuser now. Not lawyers, a mob of football fans, want to see the woman jailed, sued, killed and raped (possibly again). They outed her and abused her. That's the state of the British hate mob.
The whole world is a sewer, I wouldn't start cherry picking metrics. Quality of life there is better though overall. Significantly.
EDIT: See you've spotted the above comment. Gettin messy now
Indeed. And the worms never testify.
scary stuff, other than all the click bait one hopes sports such as cycling will no longer run major championships in countries where there is justifiable cause for concern of the safety of any of the competitors.
it reallly does look,like the UCI failed to properly check in this instance.
Agree totally that countries with laws that flagrantly flout human rights should be barred from having major sporting events. Having just read the latest reports on IPP that would include a country that imprisons someone with no prospect of release for more than 10 years when sentenced to 10 months?
shame on you GB
Toy around with this: HSBC's Expat Explorer. UAE always beats the UK for quality of life.
https://www.expatexplorer.hsbc.com/survey/country/united-arab-emirates/u...
We all have seen many a motorcycle run into cyclists during professional races in recent years, usually, due to stupidity.
Could the same "Stupidity" have caused this incident? rather than religious or cultural beliefs?
In our so called civilised, modern, democratic, developed world, cyclists are attacked daily due to pure hate and ignorance........are we any better?
Perspective, please. Homosexuality is illegal and apostasy is (officially) punishable by death.
Yes, we are better.
Compared to Qatar and the other giant medieval tin foil turds in the Arabian peninsula, there's nothing 'so-called' about any of those adjectives you listed, when applied to the UK, except maybe 'modern'. They might have shinier hotels and better trains. Where doesn't?
Better to us as we rate those metrics highly. If you shared their values however, the quality of life there may be better. Anecdote time.
I have a friend who went to Dubai right out of uni as a marketing consultant. She walked right in, blonde, attractive, educated. No experience. Ridiculous salary and loved the life there. Met her partner, married, returned here now with kids, but still raves about how women there are treated with far more respect than over here.
Think about it. If you're not gay. If you don't go around at work or in the pub talking about religion. If you don't harass women in the street. Then what really is there for the vast majority of Brits to worry about living there?
Well, if they're female Brits, they might justifiably worry about being prosecuted for being the victims of a crime. By way of example:
https://www.rt.com/uk/367198-dubai-uk-woman-arrest-rape/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23381448
But there are many more.
Yes those are good possible miscarriage of justice headlines. How many more are there actually though. What are the numbers? We have plenty of miscarriage of justice headlines here too.
In the Norwegian case, we don't have any access to the legal arguments at trial. What were the facts of the case? Maybe there wasn't enough evidence to secure a rape conviction, just like here in the UK, rape and insider trading can be some of the most difficult to prosecute. But maybe there was plenty of other evidence that showed she had lied to the court, had been out drinking with a licence (you need to apply for an alcohol license £31) and did actually have sex with a man outside marriage.
I wouldn't base my concept of the UAE from BBC scare stories, or folk who're in legal trouble.
Google Marte Deborah Dalelv.
Dubai: reported a rape, had money and passport seized immediately, sentenced to 16 months for extramarital sex, boozing and perjury.
Her alleged attacker's sentence? 13 months, for pretty much the same charges.
UAE requires a confession or 4 adult male witnesses to testify for a rape conviction. That's before we get to their treatment of itinerant workers.
The place is a shiny toilet. It has zero class. It makes Vegas look like The Royal Society.
Edit: sorry, should have read the remaining posts before I jumped in, and would've seen that case had bindun.
Yes, I have some friends (a married couple with kids) who have returned to the UK after living in UAE for a couple of years. She still raves on facebook about how wonderful it was, however from her posts at the time they appeared to spend all their time with other ex pats. I think the sacks of tax free cash that they earned while they were over there may have coloured her judgement though.
She gave up a well paid job to go over there and live what appeared to be the life of Riley. When they came back they bought a new house and are now sending their kids to a fee paying school.
I don't think this anecdote really says anything about the moral or ethical condition of the Gulf states.
Agree. Also, the harshness of some parts of sharia law mask the warmth of a lot of arabic culture, which is something most Brits do not have direct experience of.
That said, I'd say that places like Dubia and Qatar are probably not representative there. The wealth disparity seems to have created some oddities that you wouldn't have found say in Syria, Iraq etc and are extremely vulgar to my sensibilities.
On the balance, my point isn't to play down the brutality of modern day slave trade, which is basically what I think extremely low paid work is, or of Sharia law. It's that these places do have a lot to offer and we need to be asking ourselves why our own country isn't miles ahead in many respects - education etc, see the metrics on HSBC.
I'd like to see sportspeople refusing to participate in events held in these backward nations.
Women are seen as the lowest of the low, unless it's their own daughter, in which case you will be killed if you so much as look at her.
More moderate Arab countries either don't have the money, or are regressing such as Egypt.
When they run out of oil, they will worry, but that won't be for 40 years or more.
It's not just about how women dress. Allah dunna like women doing things like cycling and horse-riding ... it's un-Islamic.
Shame on the UCI for giving the Worlds to a country stuck in the Stone Age and where women have no rights.
And that's why we shouldn't be running international sporting events in Qatar. Let them keep their money and stop pretending to be a civilised nation when they are not.
I lose track: have we actually had a football World Cup there yet?
Religion of pieces strikes again.
The cop had spent time in the UK and could potentially have been radicalised by drivers here.
Heh, very good.
Post of the year!
Just another underlying UCI orchestrated money grab decision which puts their own members in jeopardy.
She survived. He was obviously a moderate.
I don't know why anyone hosts anything in these primitive, ultra religious countries anyway (I do, money obviously). It's 2016, if they want to live like it was 1216 we should leave them to it. I'm not being a racist, I'm just an atheist who can't understand this obsession with wanting to maintain an overbearing, male dominated, religiously obsessed society. The world has moved on people
.
so that's America out then?
It's just fucking stupid men using religion as an excuse to please themselves.
^This - No ifs buts or maybes, it's all about oppressing women; they can do what the hell they like.
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