Qatar - an old post rehashed

I came to Qatar for my husband's posting. As  part of my  preparation to move to this part of the world, I chewed and digested the ‘lonely planet’ volume on the gulf countries which made way to my library as a farewell gift from my husband’s colleagues. Naturally my knowledge of the gulf countries was rather bookish and therefore far removed from reality. Also the fact that the volume came out in 2007 and hence we are talking about a lapse of 3 years and had it been any other country it would not have mattered as much as it does in this particular case. Qatar as a country has undergone a mammoth change, least wanting to sound like another write-up on the country’s progress. The common adage is, 'this country has more money than sense', but Qatar in 2011 has moved well ahead of all these stereotypes it got attached to and today it offers much more than just its oil and gas.

In the initial couple of days, what caught my fancy the most was Qatari men and women's attire - men in spotless white thobe and women in long flowing abbayas in black. For an outsider it might not be easy to tell  the difference between a Qatari from an Egyptian, a Libyan from a Saudi man, an Emirati from someone from Oman, based just on their attire. On a more careful observation one would note that a Saudi man would wear a checked head scarf, an Omani would don an embroidered scarf and wrap it around like an Indian 'pagdi' etc. Though it is difficult to imagine that under that austere attire, many Qataris don the finest fabrics or Milan’s most fashionable fittings, it is infact quite common place for the rich Arabs. I read these lines somewhere, and it remained with me: ‘ From the fold in a woman’s ankle, you know her age; from the size of her wrist , her build; from the abeyya in motion, her figure; and from her hands, her complexion. From the eyes, you have everything else.’

Qataris follow the Wahhabi sect of Islam, the religion followed by most of Saudi Arabia. Wahhabism doesn’t see women working in public places as an offence, therefore, a Qatari women driving to work and shopping all by herself are not rare sights. The current king and queen have apparently contributed a great deal to the liberty that the Qataris enjoy today. Though alcohol is forbidden and one would not see a Qatari sitting over a glass of beer in a fancy bar over a weekend, they would not banish you if you do so. The Qataris are known to be rather tolerant towards the expat community which is ever growing in these parts of the world. I was quite surprised to see some white women strolling in bikinis on the beaches that I had visited.

In common with the rest of the gulf countries, Qataris value family intimacy and a visit to relatives is usually planned over the weekends. In many instances, ‘outside’ is the best description of traditional hospitality. While female guests are invited to the house, men are often entertained in tents outside the house, and in the modern housing societies - in the club. This is how I found my answer to the rows of sofa that waited the club, below the gym, besides the pool in the society we live in. This housing society of about 200 flats has twelve Indian families and the rest constitute Phillipinos, Pakistanis, Sri lankans, Bangladeshis, Nepalis and the rest of the Arab countries. These expat societies constitute half of the population of Qatar, adding to its diversity in food, culture, language et al. This is the progressively modern Qatar for you! Signing off till there is more to talk...