In December 2015, it was announced that RGS Guildford (my former secondary school) was to set up an international partnership to create RGS Guildford - Qatar. Having gone to RGS for five years, so much of what I have achieved is because I went there, which I will be eternally grateful for. It’s a fantastic school with passionate teachers. Their aspiration for full merit-based open access is a great one.

But this partnership in Qatar is wrong on so many levels. Qatar has one of the worst human rights records in the world. Freedom of expression is punishable by up to 3 years in prison for “content that may harm the country”, which is clearly very subjective.

Treatment of migrant workers, although improving, is still horrendous. With countless issues of withholding pay, indefinite detention and physical, mental and sexual abuse.

Homosexuality is punishable by death for Muslims and imprisonment of up to 7 years for non-Muslims. No legal recognition exists in Qatar for same-sex marriage or civil partnerships. Cohabitation is also illegal in Qatar.

Treatment of women is still way off what it should be. Rape is legal within marriage. In cases of rape and incest, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to five years in prison.

Why does any of this matter when setting up a partnership?

The RGS’s vision is said to “develop character within a scholarly community in which each individual is cared for and valued equally”. This seems impossible in a country where women and gay people are marginalised, and clearly NOT valued equally.

Arguments like these are also put forward over Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup. I overall don’t agree they should be hosting (for these human rights issues as well as corruption issues). BUT, I appreciate the view that an event like that should (ideally) be free of politics, and just be enjoyed for what it ought to be.

Similarly, I wouldn’t call for people to not fly on Qatar airways or not visit Doha.

But setting up a school in Qatar is a totally different question! Education and childhood is the most important part of a person’s life. So placing children in an environment where the law (seemingly) states that women and gay people are somehow inferior seems totally wrong.

In general, it is impractical to boycott everything that you ethically disagree with, but with someone’s education and how they are raised, things are totally different.

The United Kingdom is (for the most part) a very tolerant place, and RGS’s principles were, from my experience, upheld well.

But Qatar is intolerant to large parts of society, in the above ways. I believe it is in no way a suitable environment for the school to continue and maintain its values. There are many other countries which would be more suitable to this.

Although RGS Qatar will only be for primary school children, and so many of these issues may seem to not apply for children of such a young age, this is hardly the point. 

I recognise that the the curriculum taught will be a British one, and so (presumably) children are not going to overtly be told that it’s ok to rape a woman in marriage, nor that homosexuality is wrong. But the school will still be bound by Qatari laws on these issues, and raising children in such such an environment even from Key Stage 1 could well lead to them believing in the veracity of various Qatari laws and ideas. 

Besides, it seems highly likely that a secondary school will open in the near future, at which point such issues become all the more relevant.

I am sure that Qatar will eventually change. It needs time to be more open and tolerant. It’s clearly unlikely that a petition will result in the termination of this partnership, but setting one up should at least result in some answers from the school. They will hopefully provide some kind of explanation as to why - despite the benefits (which I recognise) of extending a UK education to people living in Qatar - a country with such human violations was chosen for this partnership. Indeed, if the headmaster of RGS were gay/lesbian or a woman, I find it hard to believe that they would have initiated this partnership.

Admittedly, there are currently few details about the school in circulation. So apologies if I have gotten my facts wrong on any of the above. I’ve never done anything like this before, so am prepared for some backlash. But if you agree with what I’ve written, please sign the petition. As I said, boycotting Qatar completely is both extreme and impractical, but if you went to RGS, or know people that did, I hope you would not want your school to be associated with a country of such intolerance.