Breaking Barriers: The Embassy Model Supporting LGBTQ+ Staff in MENA

Tuesday, 16 May will see the Embassy Model Summit in London show support for the LGBTQ+ community and address key issues in the MENA region.

Following the controversy surrounding Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup, which subsequently put a spotlight on LGBTQ+ issues faced by people in the country and beyond, the Embassy Model Summit will see a series of events with the aim to amplify this conversation. Set up by Laila El-Metoui, the founder of UK Queer Arabs and Stonewall Lesbian Role Model, the Summit exists with the goal to raise awareness of the conditions of LGBTQ+ safety in MENA.

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Sexual interactions between men are illegal in half the countries that make up this region, with an ultimate punishment of the death penalty in six of these eighteen countries. Laila El-Metoui's event hopes to bring attention to such conditions and put LGBTQ+ staff safety into consideration.

"The safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ people in the MENA region is a matter of human rights," says El-Metoui. "Global corporate organizations have a critical role to play in supporting their LGBTQ+ staff in MENA and creating safe and inclusive workplaces. I believe that the summits have the potential to ignite positive and lasting changes for the LGBTQ+ community in MENA, by creating safer and more inclusive work environments.”

World experts including Dr. Nass Mohammed, the founder of the Alwan Foundation (an advocacy charity for LGBTQ+ individuals from the Middle East) and Gurchaten Sandhu, Director of Programmes at ILGA World, are among the individuals in attendance. David Glasgow, adjunct professor at NYU, will also deliver a presentation on how multinationals can advance global LGBTQ+ inclusion using the embassy model.

With aims to provide knowledge and tools to connect with partners, support employees, and create safe mechanisms for understanding LGBTQ+ issues in MENA, the Embassy series follows three distinct model summits.

The first summit will specifically focus on gaining an understanding of the challenges facing LGBTQ+ individuals in the MENA region, learning to understand the model better and explore a range of practical solutions to collect workforce data to support employees. It is sponsored by Pearson, along with the support of myGwork.