The New York Times’ recent coverage of gay and transgender rights has been censored in Qatar, stoking dual concerns about press freedoms and human rights in the tiny Arab nation as it prepares to host millions of visitors for the 2022 World Cup.

In several pictures shared with ABC News, entire articles published from April to July were excised from the Doha edition of the New York Times International Edition, leaving in their places large swaths of empty newspaper and a small note explaining that the offending pieces had been “exceptionally removed.”

Among the nine pieces that appear to have been fully censored, all of which can be viewed below, eight of them pertained to issues affecting the LGBT community, suggesting that the Qatari government or, at least, those loathe to run afoul of it, are attempting to suppress discourse around sex and gender.

According to Minky Worden, the director of global initiatives for Human Rights Watch, that censorship could put Qatar in violation of its agreement with FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, to uphold certain minimum human rights standards — including press freedom and zero tolerance for discrimination based on sexual orientation — as a condition of hosting the upcoming World Cup. Read more via ABC