Women in Qatar

Women in Qatar

Female Qatari basketball players
Gender Inequality Index[1]
Value 0.524 (2013)
Rank 113th out of 152
Maternal mortality (per 100,000) 7 (2010)
Women in parliament 0.1% (2013)
Females over 25 with secondary education 66.7% (2012)
Women in labour force 50.8% (2012)
Global Gender Gap Index[2]
Value 0.6299 (2013)
Rank 115th out of 136

Women in Qatar are women who are living in or are from Qatar. Qatar's policies regarding women's rights is influenced by the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.[3] Women were enfranchised in the country in 1999.

History

Prior to the establishment of an urban society, Qatar was used as rangeland for nomadic tribes from the Najd and Al Hasa regions in Saudi Arabia.[4] In Bedouin society, women were responsible for the process of buying and selling in their tribe.[5] Women often had to take up positions of decision-making when men left their families for long stretches of time, either on pearl hunting trips or as merchants.[6] They were separated by men within their own quarters in the tent or house.[7] Education was regarded as unimportant and scarcely available for the majority of women in Bedouin tradition. On the other hand, children in urban areas were taught the Quran until the age of ten, after which the family would celebrate al khatma, the end of memorizing the Quran.[8]

Inustrial era

After the commencement of oil operations in 1930, an increasing number of women began receiving formal education.[9] Kuwaiti journalist Hidayat Sultan Al Salem wrote of Qatari women's role in 1968:

Hidayat Sultan Al Salem, "Papers of a Traveller in the Arabian Gulf":[10] —
"Most women do not go out of their houses except on rare occasions. They go out to the market place once a year. Of course, women are completely secluded from men, they have their own social gatherings and parties. Mixing between the two sexes doesn't exist at all. There are no cinemas in Qatar, except one in Umm Said. Radio and newspaper are the women's only link with the outside world. Most Qatari young women don't wear the batula anymore . . . they wear a veil covering the face instead . . . yet there's no such thing as an unveiled woman. There is one Qatari girl studying at university level in Kuwait. She is the first to take such a step, but five girls will follow suit next year. Older women are anxiously awaiting government plans to open literacy centres for them, so they can get the education they missed."

Women's economic role declined temporarily, until a marked increase of women in the workforce during the early seventies.[11]

Clothing and attire

Women and men are expected to dress in a manner that is modest and not provocative, but the dress code is generally driven by social customs and is more relaxed in comparison to other nations in the region. Qatari women generally wear customary dresses that include “long black robes” and black head cover "hijab", locally called bo'shiya.[12][13] However, the more traditional Sunni Muslim clothing for women are the black colored body covering known as the abayah together with the black scarf used for covering their heads known as the shayla.[14]

It is believed that Qatari women began using face masks in the 19th century amid substantial immigration. As they had no practical ways of concealing their faces from foreigners, they began wearing the same type of face mask as their Persian counterparts.[15]

Social life

For social gatherings, women are generally never brought to social events except for western-style gatherings or when the attendees are composed of close relatives. Schools for girls are separate from schools for boys. In terms of employment opportunities, women are generally employed in government positions, although there are no women in high-level government positions.[14]

Women's rights

Women in Qatar vote and may run for public office. Qatar enfranchised women at the same time as men in connection with the 1999 elections for a Central Municipal Council.[16][17][18] These elections—the first ever in Qatar—were deliberately held on 8 March 1999, International Women’s Day.[16] It was the first GCC country to enfranchise its population.[19]

Qatar sent women athletes to the 2012 Summer Olympics that began on 27 July in London.[20]

Gender equality

Qatari women have made significant legal and social advancements since the 1990s. Sheikha Mozah has been a vocal advocate for women's issues, supporting women's conferences, higher education opportunities and the creation of a cabinet-level position in the government dedicated to women's concerns.

As a result of these advancements, Qatari women have many career opportunities, including leadership positions, in education, banking, charitable projects, health and human services, tourism, law, civil service and even diplomacy.[21] Sheikha Yousuf Hasan Al Jufairi became the first female to hold a municipal position when she won the Central Municipal Council elections for the Airport constituency in 2003.[22]

36%–42% of Qatari women are in the workforce and experts say women are moving forward with more rights.[23][24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Table 4: Gender Inequality Index". United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  2. ↑ "The Global Gender Gap Report 2013" (PDF). World Economic Forum. pp. 12–13.
  3. ↑ "Qatar’s Challenge to Saudi Arabia: An alternative view of Wahhabism". academia.edu. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  4. ↑ Magee, Peter (2014). The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia. Cambridge Press. p. 50. ISBN 9780521862318.
  5. ↑ Abu Saud, Abeer (1984). Qatari Women: Past and Present. p. 24. ISBN 978-0582783720. Bedouin women were therefore responsible for the process of buying and selling within their own tribe.
  6. ↑ Abu Saud, Abeer. p. 24–25. "It is precisely because they were able to shoulder the burdens of such responsibilities that they were also able to exert indirect influence on the execution of decision-making within their own tribe, always considered as being the man's task. [...] In Qatar, for example, men went out to sea on long pearl fishing trips of as merchants".
  7. ↑ Abu Saud, Abeer. p. 25.
  8. ↑ Abu Saud, Abeer. p. 26.
  9. ↑ Abu Saud, Abeer. p. 31.
  10. ↑ Abu Saud, Abeer. p. 35.
  11. ↑ Abu Saud, Abeer. p. 34.
  12. ↑ Abu Saud, Abeer. p. 39.
  13. ↑ King, Courtney. For Qatari Women, Change Slow in Coming
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Culture of Qatar
  15. ↑ Abu Saud, Abeer. p. 52.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lambert, Jennifer (2011). "Political Reform in Qatar: Participation, Legitimacy and Security" 19 (1). Middle East Policy Council.
  17. ↑ Miles, Hugh (2005). Al-Jazeera.
  18. ↑ "In Bahrain, Women Run, Women Vote, Women Lose" New York Times
  19. ↑ Maisel, Sebastian; Shoup, John A. (2009). Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab States Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Arab States 1st. Greenwood. p. 373. ISBN 978-0313344428. Qatar became the first Persian Gulf country to enfranchise its indigenous Qatari population (male and female) in an election for a Municipal Council.
  20. ↑ "Saudi Arabia to let women compete in Olympics for first time". CNN. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  21. ↑ QATARI WOMEN
  22. ↑ Jack Kelly (9 April 2003). "Qatar ruler pushing nation toward democracy". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  23. ↑ Toumi, Habib. Qatari women moving forward with more rights, expert says, December 22, 2011
  24. ↑ freedomhouse.org

External links

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