An interestring article about Qatari women by Yousra Samir on QV...
How do we expatriates see Qatari women? Women who are covered from head to toe in black, faces veiled, surrounded by servants who carry their shopping? Are they women who have little freedom, have to answer to their fathers, brothers, or husbands for everything and cannot speak to men who are not related to them? Do Qatari women spend half their lives rotating around shopping malls buying whatever they want and then the other half sitting at home gossiping with other women? Do Qatari mothers spend their days grooming their daughters to marry them off as soon as possible?
Because other than at work, speaking to and interacting with Qatari women for many expats seems to be a no-go-zone, we end up constructing our own ideas of what Qatari women are and what it must be like to be a Qatari woman, and unfortunately, many of our ideas about them and perceptions of them are wrong.
Eman Al Ma'adeeed, a Qatari friend of mine from university, put it quite perfectly:
"Probably the worst [misconception] is that we're all stuck up snobs who care about nothing but what bag is in our hands and what brand of shoes is on our feet. [I feel] like it's impossible for me to hold an intelligent conversation without exploding into a thousand little Hermes bags".
Every human being is guilty of mentally putting the people they encounter in boxes. I confess, I have been guilty of doing just this with Qatari women.
While studying for my degree at Qatar University, most of the women that studied alongside me were Qatari. For me, there were four types of Qatari women: the first were what my friends and I called the "Barbies", young Qatari women who came to university every day with a kilogram of makeup on their faces, hair backcombed to within an inch of its life and skyscraper high heels. As soon as they walked through the doors of the university their sheilas (headscarves) came off, and they spent most of the day parading themselves around the campus, eyeing other women up and down as well as sitting down together in groups and gossiping at Starbucks. They believed that they were the most popular women at the university. Many of them also had the lowest grades in the university.
Then there were what my friends and I classified as the "Wahabbis". These women were covered from head to toe in black, plain wide abayas, big sheilas, nikabs (face veils) and abayat raas (an abaya which goes on top of the normal abaya which covers the head, has long sleeves and is open at the front, a bit like a black hooded cloak). They never plucked their eyebrows or waxed off their moustaches and spent their days in the university mosques and at Islamic lectures. Their husbands and families allowed them little or no freedom. They also constantly complained that the university was getting too liberal.
The next category were the "boyas", a Khaleeji term for a tomboy ,and they are a very taboo subject both here in Qatar and around the Gulf. These young women had short spiky hair, wore men's clothes and shoes and had custom-made abayas which often looked like men's thowbs. You did not mess with the boyas. They were known to break out in physical fights. Whenever I saw a boya while at university, I would walk past them as quickly as my feet would carry me, never making eye contact.
Finally, there were the normal Qatari women, the ones I was friends with. And actually, most Qatari women are "normal". My friends wore sheilas and abayas, a normal amount of makeup, loved to go shopping and knew everything about fashion, but at the same time had brilliant minds and studied hard. We talked about everything together, went out together to have lunch and see a film in the cinema and joked about men just like all women do. Many of my Qatari girlfriends are now going abroad to do post-graduate degrees.
I have come to the learn that the way I put Qatari women in boxes while at university was wrong. Each person is their own individual and assuming that someone is a certain way because of their exterior appearance is not viable. While in many cases the women that my friends and I categorized were what we classified them to be, there were "Barbies" who were very intelligent and hard-working, there were "Wahabbis" who made the personal choice to be so conservative and religious, not their husbands or parents, and there were "boyas" who were very kind and gentle.
What is the truth about Qatari women? The truth is that they are the most beautiful, intelligent, ambitious and assertive women you will ever meet.
An interestring article about Qatari women by Yousra Samir on QV...
How do we expatriates see Qatari women? Women who are covered from head to toe in black, faces veiled, surrounded by servants who carry their shopping? Are they women who have little freedom, have to answer to their fathers, brothers, or husbands for everything and cannot speak to men who are not related to them? Do Qatari women spend half their lives rotating around shopping malls buying whatever they want and then the other half sitting at home gossiping with other women? Do Qatari mothers spend their days grooming their daughters to marry them off as soon as possible?
Because other than at work, speaking to and interacting with Qatari women for many expats seems to be a no-go-zone, we end up constructing our own ideas of what Qatari women are and what it must be like to be a Qatari woman, and unfortunately, many of our ideas about them and perceptions of them are wrong.
Eman Al Ma'adeeed, a Qatari friend of mine from university, put it quite perfectly:
"Probably the worst [misconception] is that we're all stuck up snobs who care about nothing but what bag is in our hands and what brand of shoes is on our feet. [I feel] like it's impossible for me to hold an intelligent conversation without exploding into a thousand little Hermes bags".
Every human being is guilty of mentally putting the people they encounter in boxes. I confess, I have been guilty of doing just this with Qatari women.
While studying for my degree at Qatar University, most of the women that studied alongside me were Qatari. For me, there were four types of Qatari women: the first were what my friends and I called the "Barbies", young Qatari women who came to university every day with a kilogram of makeup on their faces, hair backcombed to within an inch of its life and skyscraper high heels. As soon as they walked through the doors of the university their sheilas (headscarves) came off, and they spent most of the day parading themselves around the campus, eyeing other women up and down as well as sitting down together in groups and gossiping at Starbucks. They believed that they were the most popular women at the university. Many of them also had the lowest grades in the university.
Then there were what my friends and I classified as the "Wahabbis". These women were covered from head to toe in black, plain wide abayas, big sheilas, nikabs (face veils) and abayat raas (an abaya which goes on top of the normal abaya which covers the head, has long sleeves and is open at the front, a bit like a black hooded cloak). They never plucked their eyebrows or waxed off their moustaches and spent their days in the university mosques and at Islamic lectures. Their husbands and families allowed them little or no freedom. They also constantly complained that the university was getting too liberal.
The next category were the "boyas", a Khaleeji term for a tomboy ,and they are a very taboo subject both here in Qatar and around the Gulf. These young women had short spiky hair, wore men's clothes and shoes and had custom-made abayas which often looked like men's thowbs. You did not mess with the boyas. They were known to break out in physical fights. Whenever I saw a boya while at university, I would walk past them as quickly as my feet would carry me, never making eye contact.
Finally, there were the normal Qatari women, the ones I was friends with. And actually, most Qatari women are "normal". My friends wore sheilas and abayas, a normal amount of makeup, loved to go shopping and knew everything about fashion, but at the same time had brilliant minds and studied hard. We talked about everything together, went out together to have lunch and see a film in the cinema and joked about men just like all women do. Many of my Qatari girlfriends are now going abroad to do post-graduate degrees.
I have come to the learn that the way I put Qatari women in boxes while at university was wrong. Each person is their own individual and assuming that someone is a certain way because of their exterior appearance is not viable. While in many cases the women that my friends and I categorized were what we classified them to be, there were "Barbies" who were very intelligent and hard-working, there were "Wahabbis" who made the personal choice to be so conservative and religious, not their husbands or parents, and there were "boyas" who were very kind and gentle.
What is the truth about Qatari women? The truth is that they are the most beautiful, intelligent, ambitious and assertive women you will ever meet.