Women in contemporary Qatar : their rights and welfare

The State of Qatar is in the process of change, a process that started only in the last decade. This change includes modernising its institutions, introducing democracy, and moving towards becoming a more open economy and society. The State authorities have introduced legislation, policies and guidelines to support and enhance these changes. Women’s rights have attracted much attention during this process and there has been concern to help and support women in taking up their place within society since there is a significant gap between the roles and rights of males and females in the State. Qatari society is conservative; it has strong Arabic and Islamic values, norms and traditions. Therefore, research into women’s issues is of great interest to the State authorities in helping them with their decision-making. Furthermore, the State lacks information, data and research regarding women’s issues and this research is the first comprehensive study to be carried out on the rights of Qatari women. The main aims of this research are to explore, examine and investigate the political, educational, work and welfare rights of women in Qatar. This includes identifying the obstacles which stand in the way of women’s rights and offering recommendations regarding measures that would help in overcoming these difficulties. The research aims to open, promote and explore issues concerning the rights of women and seeks to discover if any changes in values and norms have occurred since the new Emir took over as State ruler in 1993. Extensive fieldwork has been carried out to provide the necessary data and information; also, a framework based on system theory, and the ideas of Islam and feminism, have been used to address the aims and objectives of the research. On the basis of this work, a number of conclusions have been drawn.