Graffiti gets a makeover in streets of Qatar
After decades of suppressing unauthorized graffiti protest, Qatari authorities commissioned dozens of public murals around the World Cup.
DOHA — Street art is getting new-found official support in Qatar, where the World Cup just ended.
Gulf nations have generally discouraged graffiti, if not banned it outright. For example, in 2017, Qatar's Ministry of Municipality and Environment tweeted, "Writing on walls is prohibited and against our moral and traditional values."
Aside from aesthetic reasons, the countries in the region fear any expression of political symbolism. The Syrian uprising that led to a decade-long civil war was widely believed to have been spurred by the arrest of then-14-year-old Mouawiya Syasneh after he painted anti-government slogans on his school's walls.
In 2019, a wall in Doha's Old Airport neighborhood sported stenciled images of rock star John Lennon and writer Edgar Allan Poe before they vanished a few weeks later, along with the words "HIGH HOPES" in rainbow colors.
