In November, the fashion world flew to Doha for a high-gloss charity gala. Under huge chandeliers and endless camera flashes, Vogue’s Anna Wintour posed with Qatar’s family at the inaugural Franca Fund event, presented as a glamorous night for medical research and culture.
Anna Wintour © Mena Today
In November, the fashion world flew to Doha for a high-gloss charity gala. Under huge chandeliers and endless camera flashes, Vogue’s Anna Wintour posed with Qatar’s family at the inaugural Franca Fund event, presented as a glamorous night for medical research and culture.
On Instagram, it looks perfect. But there’s a problem: this same ruling family has spent years hosting and backing Hamas, and its most prominent matriarch publicly praised Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the man widely blamed for organizing the October 7 massacre and the kidnapping of civilians.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas gunmen poured out of Gaza and carried out the worst anti-Jewish massacre since the Holocaust.
Around 1,200 people were murdered in a single day; some 251 civilians and soldiers were dragged into Gaza as hostages. Families were hunted down in their homes and safe rooms, entire communities were wiped out, and festival-goers were chased across open fields and shot.
There is now extensive evidence that women and men were subjected to brutal sexual violence and rape, both during the attack and in captivity, documented by Israeli investigators, international media and international bodies.
That is the reality behind the party photos.
Qatar didn’t just “talk” to Hamas – it sheltered and bankrolled it
For more than a decade, Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political office in its capital, Doha. This did not happen by accident. At first, Western officials defended it as a way to keep a communication channel open with a dangerous group. Over time, that line collapsed.
Billions of dollars in “aid” have moved through Qatar into a Gaza run by Hamas. Some of that money went to basic needs. But everyone knew who controlled the territory and who benefited from the setup.
Qatar became the landlord, host and key financial lifeline for Hamas leaders living comfortably in Doha while rockets were stockpiled, tunnels dug and a mass-murder operation was being prepared.
You can call that “mediation” if you want. In plain language, it is support.
Sheikha Moza prays after the death of Yahya Sinwar
Now add this: after Israel killed Sinwar, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser – the mother of Qatar’s emir and one of the most high-profile royals in the region – did not just express grief for Gaza. She went online and praised Sinwar by name.
She wrote that “Yahya” means “the one who lives,” and suggested he would live on while his enemies disappear. This is directed at a man identified by Israel and many Western governments as the central planner of a day when civilians were shot in their beds, burned in their homes, taken hostage and subjected to sexual torture.
That is not a clumsy peace message. It is admiration for a warlord whose legacy is mass murder and rape.
So you have:
• A state that hosts Hamas’s leadership.
• A state that has pumped huge sums of money into a Hamas-run Gaza.
• A leading royal who publicly glorifies the group’s top commander after a massacre of civilians and systematic sexual violence.
That is the record. Anyone pretending this is just a neutral “mediator” is lying to themselves.
What Anna Wintour’s presence really says
Anna Wintour is not some random guest. She is one of the most powerful people in global culture. She knows exactly what a photograph signifies. A picture of her standing beside members of the Qatari royal family is a signal: these are people who belong in the inner circle.
When that inner circle includes a family that shelters Hamas leaders and publicly praises Sinwar, the image becomes more than fashion. It becomes cover.
The standard excuse is: “It’s just a charity event, it’s for a good cause.” But that is the whole point of this kind of soft power. You wrap a regime in art, sports and philanthropy so people forget what else is going on. World Cups. Museums. Sponsored campuses. Now high-end fashion galas. It is the same playbook.
Wintour does not control foreign policy. But she absolutely controls where she shows up and who she is willing to stand next to. When she goes to Doha for a royal-hosted event, she is not just supporting research. She is helping a controversial ruling family look respectable in front of a global audience.
The bigger picture: who we call “terrorists,” who we call “partners”
At the same time, the United States is moving in the opposite direction on paper. President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order telling his administration to start designating certain Muslim Brotherhood branches as terrorist organizations and global terrorist entities, partly because of ties to groups like Hamas.
So you get a bizarre split:
• On one side, Washington talks about cracking down on Islamist networks linked to terrorism.
• On the other, it still treats Qatar – a state that hosts Hamas and whose leading royal publicly honored Sinwar – as a key ally and mediator.
Legally, the U.S. may go after some organizations. Socially and culturally, the West is still rolling out the red carpet for the people who made room for Hamas to thrive.
That double standard is exactly why nights like the Doha gala matter. They send the message that with enough money, enough glamour and enough PR, you can be seen as part of the solution while staying very close to the problem.
This is not about attacking Qataris. It’s about holding a ruling family to account
Criticizing Qatar’s family is not an attack on ordinary Qataris, Muslims or Arabs in general. This is about a small group of extremely powerful people and the choices they have made:
• They chose to give Hamas leaders a safe home in Doha.
• They chose to let massive flows of money pass through their system to a Hamas-run territory.
• And at least one of them, Sheikha Moza, chose to publicly praise Yahya Sinwar after a day of mass murder, abduction and sexual violence against civilians.
Those are deliberate decisions. They deserve serious moral judgment.
And Western elites – in politics, universities, media and fashion – have to decide where their own line is. Do they keep handing medals, honorary degrees and prime photo-ops to the same people who celebrate men responsible for these crimes? Or do they finally say: no, this crosses the line?
Where Anna Wintour comes in
Anna Wintour is free to attend whatever event she wants. But people are also free to look at those pictures and ask what, exactly, she is endorsing.
You cannot talk about “values,” “inclusion” and “human rights” on one day, then fly to Doha the next and stand smiling beside a royal family tied so closely to Hamas, without expecting people to notice the contradiction.
Here is the simple standard:
• No feel-good charity galas that double as reputation laundry for regimes that host and back terror groups.
• No awards or soft-focus profiles for royals who publicly glorify men like Sinwar.
• And no pretending that it is all just fashion and culture when the politics are staring you in the face.
If the fashion world wants to be taken seriously when it talks about ethics and responsibility, it has to stop acting as PR for power structures that help keep Hamas alive.
Right now, the message from Doha is: you can support the worst people in the world, and as long as you throw a beautiful party, the West will still show up.
Anna Wintour should be the first to prove that message wrong by not going back.
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Anna Wintour served as editor-in-chief of Vogue from 1988 to 2025. She is currently the Global Chief Content Officer and Artistic Director at Condé Nast.
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