Qatari women: A new generation of leaders?

Middle East Policy

Volumn 12, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 104-119

  Bahry, Louay ^a   Marr, Phebe ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE   (United States)

^b US Institute of Peace   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 24944569640     PISSN: 10611924     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1061-1924.2005.00205.x     Document Type: Review

References (49)

1. Qatar is a country of 4,412 square miles with a population of only some 200,000 Qataris. It has a foreign population of about 500,000.
2. Even for boys, the first private primary school in Qatar was not opened until 1915; the first government school for boys was opened in 1951.
3. Al-Jiddah, now about 86 years old, eventually became a teacher in a government school for girls and went on to become its principal, a position she held for 25 years. A school in Qatar has been named for her to commemorate her work.
4. The first teacher-training school for Qatari women opened in 1967. See Amnah al-Amadi, Masirat al-Mara al-Qatariyyah [The March of Qatari Women] (Doha: Dar al-Ulum, 1999), p. 25.
5. This practice ceased in the 1970s. However, female students at Qatar University still receive a monthly "salary" of 500 Qatari Riyals (about $140) to attend the university.
6. Qatar University includes non-Qatari students, not included in this chart.
7. This is the observation of one of the authors after three years of teaching political science at Qatar University.
8. Dr. al-Misnad has a Ph.D. in education from the United Kingdom. More important, she is closely related to the wife of the amir, Shaikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Misnad, which gives her political authority.
9. One of her sons, Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, is the crown prince of Qatar. Her eldest daughter, al-Mayassa, is finishing a B.A. in political science at Duke University and has distinguished herself in many ways.
10. In a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Shaikha Mozah stressed her desire to see the basics of critical thinking, problem solving and civics offered in Qatar's schools, as well as competition to improve standards. (Shaikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missnad, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, September 19, 2004).
11. Some traditional professions were filled exclusively by women. For example, some women were hairdressers and prepared brides for weddings, beautifying them for special occasions. Such women were called al-ashaqah (beautician). Women also worked as midwives, called al-dayah. A few women washed dead women before burial; such women, called al-ghasalah, had to have good reputations.
12. The Arab Gulf countries in the GCC include, besides Qatar: Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait.
13. The new generation of women in the ruling Al-Thani family in Qatar are financially very secure, but many of them work in administrative jobs in different branches of government. A few have gone abroad for their education and have doctorates from foreign universities. Some are members of the university faculty or work as doctors in the medical profession.
14. Foreign labor works in all fields in Qatar. Household labor, almost wholly female, comes from Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines, with some Africans or Egyptians. Qataris are paid high salaries (at $31,000, per capita income in 2004 was among the highest in the world). Cheap household labor encourages families to have more than one servant (some families have up to six). These servants are paid between $150 to $450 a month, depending on their origin and education. A whole generation of Qataris has been raised by foreign servants, which has left its mark on society. For this aspect of life, see Dr. Farouk Mustapha Ismail, Foreign Servants and their Influence on the Qatari Family and the Qatari Child, in Arabic (Doha: Dar al-Ulum Press, 1991).
15. Supreme Council for Family Affairs, Women and Men in Qatar, Statistical View, 2004 (Doha: 2004), Table 3.8, p. 35.
16. The Planning Council, Annual Statistical Abstract, 2003 (Doha: Planning Council), p. 61.
17. On June 15, 2004, al-Rayah (Doha) newspaper published a photo of 68 female police graduates dressed in uniform.
18. In the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, Dr. Juhainah al-Isa (now a professor at Qatar University) worked as cultural attaché at the Qatari Embassy in Washington, DC. Women in neighboring Bahrain and Kuwait are serving now as ambassadors abroad.
19. On November 1, 2004, the United Arab Emirates became the second GCC country to appoint a female minister when it named Shaikh Lubna al-Qassimi as minister of economics and trade.
20. The word "shaikha" is used as a title for the female members of the ruling family, but it is also a proper name. In the case of Dr. Shaikha al-Misnad, it is her proper name.
21. For more details on these and other Qatari female role models, see al-Amadi, Masirat al-Mara, pp. 167-220.
22. The Arab Gulf country most affected by such currents is Bahrain. Since the 1950s, Bahrain has seen strong political agitation with clandestine political parties. In the early 1960s, Qatar was affected by some Arab nationalist agitation, but this remained marginal.
23. In the mid-1990s, Bahrain witnessed rising Shia agitation against a Sunni-dominated government. (Shia compose a majority of the population.) Many Bahraini women (mainly Shia) participated in strikes and street demonstrations; some were fired from their jobs, put in jail and even tortured.
24. Most Qataris belong to some 12 major clans, which perpetuate their influence through marriage and business ties.
25. This is also true of the older generation in Qatar, which sympathized with nationalists fighting for independence in the 1950s and 1960s in places like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Qataris considered these causes Islamic.
26. When the amir finally announced that women would get the right to vote, there was strong resistance by a minority of Islamist activists, led by Dr. Abdul Rahman bin Umar al-Nuaimi, now a professor of history at Qatar University. The amir arrested Dr. al-Nuaimi and imprisoned him for 1,027 days. The objection of the conservative Islamists was based on their belief that women should not rule over men, according to Islamic teaching. (Interview with Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Nuaimi, June 10,2004, Doha, Qatar.)
27. For details of the 1999 elections, see Louay Bahry, "Elections in Qatar: a Window of Democracy Opens in the Gulf," Middle East Policy, Vol. 6, No. 4, June 1999, pp. 118-128;
28. and Ibrahim al-Haydus, "The First House of Democracy in Qatar" (Arabic), Doha, 2001.
29. This female is Shaikha al-Jifri. She is very active and has excellent relations with the media. She won only because the two other male candidates in her district mysteriously withdrew, probably to make room for a female representative.
30. Among the GCC countries, only Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have not given women the right to vote. In Kuwait, there is a strong suffrage movement for women, led by the ruler (Shaikh Jabir al-Ahmad Al-Sabah) and his government. It is the Kuwaiti-elected parliament that is resisting. In October 2004, the reform-minded Kuwaiti government met a longstanding demand from women by sending a measure to parliament giving women the right to vote. However, the measure is expected to meet vigorous opposition from Islamists and tribal deputies, and will not pass easily. In 1999, the amir issued a similar decree, but the majority of deputies refused to sign it. In Saudi Arabia, neither women nor men have the right to vote in any kind of public elections. Under pressure from inside and outside the country, the conservative Saudi government recently held partial elections for local councils, but women were not going to be allowed to vote. In Bahrain, women were given the right to vote and run under the 2003 constitution, but no women won in the general election that took place that year. Only in Oman are there some women who were elected to the country's parliament.
31. This idea was presented to Louay Bahry by a number of his female students.
32. Foreign workers in Qatar outnumber native Qataris by a considerable margin: 500,000 to 180,000 or 200,000.
33. Qatari families generally travel now on summer vacation to places like Lebanon, Egypt, Malaysia and Europe, where they are exposed to different cultures and ways of life.
34. For a sample of this debate, see "Qatari Women Revolt against the Traditional abayah," al-Rayah, Doha, April 10, 2004. The innovation also caught on in Saudi Arabia, but the much stricter Saudis refused to accept these abayas and confiscated and destroyed tens of thousands of them.
35. Al-Sharq, Doha, December 1, 2003. Due to the large segment of the Qatari population that is traditional and conservative, no one should underestimate the impact of such recommendations on some of the Qatari men.
36. Supreme Council for Family Affairs, Women and Men in Qatar (Doha: 2004), Table 1.5, p. 9.
37. Al-Rayah, Doha, April 13, 2004. Shaikh al-Khatani is also well known as a primary school teacher who has taught several generations of Qataris. He has also taught the sharia and preached in mosques.
38. Normally there are two separate parties at each wedding; one for the men and one for women. Such parties are of special interest for mothers and sisters of unmarried young men. Here they can see the eligible women, without veils and wearing their best clothes. This is one of the best occasions for seeking out prospective brides for the young men in their families. It is now customary for pictures of the groom, his father, and some of the distinguished male guests to appear in the newspapers the following day.
39. Relations between families, clans and tribes play a role in Qatar in easing both social and political tensions. It is expected that such linkages will play a new role in political life with the introduction of the first parliamentary elections for the majlis al-shura.
40. Al-khatibah is a traditional institution that has existed for a long time in Qatar, the Gulf and the rest of the Arab world. She is normally a woman "of a certain age," possessed of good morals and a recognized reputation that allows her to meet with prospective bridegrooms looking for wives. They will tell her about themselves and what they are looking for; she will tell them what is available, who is suitable, and give him descriptions of the physical appearance of the women. To be able to perform this function, the khatibah must have clients among families with young women ready for marriage and looking for husbands. They must visit her, too. She collects a fee from both families; if her efforts are successful, she can claim a bonus.
41. Plural marriages still exist in Qatar. In 2002, for example, among the 1593 Qatari women who married, 94 percent were in monogamous marriages, but 5 percent were second wives and 0.3 percent, third wives (The Planning Council, Vital Statistics. Annual Bulletin: Marriages and Divorces, 2002 (Doha: 2003), p. 16).
42. In Qatari society, as is the case in the rest of the GCC, it is difficult for divorced women to remarry.
43. "Huwa wa Hiya" a monthly review in al-Rayah, Doha, April 15, 2004.
44. This is defined as the percent of divorces compared to marriages in any given year. In 1994 the rate was 37 percent; in 2000, 31 percent (The Planning Council: Vital Statistics: Annual Bulletin: Marriages and Divorces, 2002 (Doha: 2003), p. 1.
45. There are even reported cases - albeit rare - of men divorcing Qatari wives and marrying a Filippina or Southeast Asian servant.
46. In 2002, some 10 percent of Qatari men married non-Qatari women. Four percent were from the GCC, 3 percent from Arab countries and 2 percent from Asia (Annual Bulletin: Marriage and Divorce, 2002, p. 7).
47. Qatari law allows both sexes to marry nationals from other GCC countries freely. But to marry outside the GCC, a Qatari must obtain special permission from the Ministry of Interior. Only men over the age of 65 can marry women from any country without such permission.
48. Al-Watan, Doha, May 26, 2002.
49. For an excellent article on divorced women, see Shu'un al-Usra [Family Affairs], published by the Higher Council on Family Affairs, Doha, No. 17, May 2003, pp. 14-16.