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| Volume XII, Summer 2005, Number 2 |
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| EXCERPT: Qatari Women: A New Generation of Leaders? |
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| Louay Bahry and Phebe Marr |
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Dr. Bahry is an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He was head of the Department of Public Administration and taught political science at the University of Qatar between 2001 and 2004. Dr. Marr is a Middle East historian and a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. She spent much of 2001-04 in Qatar with her husband, where they researched this article.
Much has been written about
democratic transformation in
the Middle East and the
Gulf. The latest iteration of this policy, the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative, is designed to encourage reform on several fronts: economic, social and cultural. Changing the status and role of women is a key element in this reform. A pivotal state to watch in this process is Qatar, where a quiet revolution may be taking place.
Qatar, a new, rich country that only achieved its independence from Britain in 1971, is undergoing rapid change. It is offering the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf and the rest of the world a continuous series of surprises. These include the establishment of the al-Jazeera television channel, the appointment of the first woman cabinet minister in the Arab Gulf, and the adoption of a daring foreign policy in which a "small power" takes center stage in regional and international conferences and offers free-thinking advice to the Arab world. The ruler of Qatar, Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who took office in 1995, is still relatively young (54). In less than ten years, his rule has catapulted Qatar from a sleepy, isolated country to prosperity, a state with an international role and a leader in the region's social and political transformation.
A key element in this transformation has been the status of women. While most of the change in women's status has been generated from the top down and has yet to strike deep roots, the steps taken and the response to them have been daring for this traditional, conservative society. This article traces the progress Qatari women have made in the last few decades, as well as some of the difficulties and obstacles they still face.1
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.
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