Sorry I didn't have time to read all the posts, but I think barriers here are culture and tradition. If we look at qatar a few decades ago, women had no role in society but slowly expats starting coming in and change started taking place and people usually resist change so it'll take time (maybe a long time) for qatar to become a more liberal place for women. But it will happen sooner or later, I mean look at dubai, it used to be like qatar and now it's a very liberal place for women where they don't get harrassed, get high profile jobs, etc. So u can't really generalize the situation over the entire middle east cause places like dubai and lebanon aren't like qatar at all.
I think religion has nothing to do with it, it's more of the family constraints which society (meaning the old qatari society) has imposed on it. But I still believe that slowly things will change.
Sorry I didn't have time to read all the posts, but I think barriers here are culture and tradition. If we look at qatar a few decades ago, women had no role in society but slowly expats starting coming in and change started taking place and people usually resist change so it'll take time (maybe a long time) for qatar to become a more liberal place for women. But it will happen sooner or later, I mean look at dubai, it used to be like qatar and now it's a very liberal place for women where they don't get harrassed, get high profile jobs, etc. So u can't really generalize the situation over the entire middle east cause places like dubai and lebanon aren't like qatar at all.
I think religion has nothing to do with it, it's more of the family constraints which society (meaning the old qatari society) has imposed on it. But I still believe that slowly things will change.