Expats and Workers

This chapter examines foreign labor in Qatar from opposing ends of the employment spectrum. On one side are professional-class expatriates with terminal degrees from prestigious Western universities; on the other are low-wage migrants who toil six days per week in Qatar’s service and construction sectors. These groups are physically segregated from each other, and a number of institutional and cultural mechanisms symbolically isolate Qataris from expatriates. This stratification is illustrated through everything from residential zoning laws and hiring practices to homes and clothing. Both sets of workers are part of Qatar’s sponsorship labor system, which gives them limited protections from deportation should trouble arise. Professional-class expatriates develop interactive strategies that attempt physical or symbolic affinity with Qataris, seeking whatever residual benefits such proximity has to offer. Low-wage laborers from non-Western nations have fewer options. On their one day off per week, low-wage laborers are prohibited from entering shopping malls, among the few free public, air-conditioned spaces in a country where temperatures regularly exceed one hundred degrees. The negligent treatment of low-wage migrant workers contributed to a tragic incident at a Doha shopping mall that lays bare the disconnect between Qatari nationals and expatriates.

Welcome to Doha

This chapter serves as an introduction to Qatar and foreshadows the book’s primary themes. Set at a stand-up comedy performance, the scene provides a microcosm of Qatar’s transnational milieu. Reflecting Qatar’s conservative environment, most of the comedians are careful about what they say onstage. Qatar does not guarantee freedom of speech, and its government once sentenced a poet to life in prison for penning a few lines of prose it deemed offensive. The stand-up comedians develop strategic workarounds to subtly, and not so subtly, address controversial topics such as nationalism and citizens’ rights. There are also Qatari comedians whose status as nationals grants them considerable leeway onstage, illustrating the different worlds occupied by citizens and noncitizens in Doha.

Modern Traditionalism

This chapter examines Qatar’s development in the context of the Arabian Gulf, the site of enormous human activity, trade, and commerce from ancient times until today. It considers how tribes influenced social and political systems in the Gulf, including the Al Thanis, the dynastic family that has ruled Qatar for more than 150 years. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Gulf was known for its pearling and fishing industries. The contemporary Gulf is characterized by modern petrocities whose enormous wealth services their nation-building aspirations. Doha vies directly with Dubai to see which metropolis can outdo the other, be it through sports, education, shopping malls, mosques, or broken world records. To compete, Qatar brands itself using a narrative of modern traditionalism, drawing from a constellation of classic and contemporary traits. The chapter explores the contours of modern traditionalism, unpacking its multiple meanings and characteristics, including generic but esteemed concepts such as freedom, authenticity, family values, and women’s empowerment. It also reveals how the government deliberately deemphasizes tribes and Islam in the narrative in order to curtail tribal power and replace it with a bureaucratic government structured to grant supremacy to the Al Thani dynasty.

The National Uniform

Virtually all Qataris wear the national uniform in their day-to-day lives: white robes and head scarves for men, and black cloaks and head scarves for women. These signifiers of nationality are “passports” in a nation where citizens are positioned atop the social hierarchy. Exploring these issues vis-à-vis the hijab, this chapter traces the garments’ history in the Gulf, including their transformation from functional to fashionable attire. These and other changes generate persistent grumbles—and social control measures—from other Qataris. Thus, the hijab serves as a site of resistance, conformity, and negotiation of social issues, including responses to modernity. To assuage concerns about cultural erosion and maintain a sense of personal style, Qatari women modify, adjust, reimagine, and remove their hijabs to suit changing circumstances. These hijab micropractices are at times so infinitesimal that they are easy to overlook. Yet they are significant because they enable women to align the elements of modern traditionalism into a socially acceptable identity that maximizes autonomy. Though the hijab is typically viewed through a lens of constraint, this chapter demonstrates the hijab’s flexibility and the agency with which Muslim women engage in adornment practices. Hijab micropractices, however, may inadvertently uphold a dynastic power structure that does little to advance women.

Conclusion

This chapter explores the limits and implications of modern traditionalism in contemporary Qatar, how it enriches certain populations to the detriment of others. Because modern traditionalism is intended to fortify national identity, it may inadvertently sustain some of the social conditions it was designed to alleviate. Elite Qataris employ modern traditionalism for their own purposes and in ways the state does not necessarily intend. For other populations, there are limits to the narrative’s potential to address contemporary life in Doha. While there are signs of progress, Qatar’s leaders systematically restrict basic forms of expression. This includes censorship of independent news outlets, arresting journalists, and shuttering the Doha Centre for Media Freedom. Regardless, many Qatari citizens are optimistic about the nation’s future.

Introduction

Qatar’s ambitions are grand—it aspires to become a global superpower. To achieve this, Qatar has embarked on one of the most extensive nation-building projects the world has ever seen. To do so, the tiny Arabian Gulf nation has imported millions of low-wage workers, who have increased Qatar’s population by more than 600 percent since 1990. Today, Qataris make up about 10 percent of the population, and there are deep concerns among conservatives that Qatar’s culture is evaporating. To counter these concerns, the government has promised a deep commitment to cultural preservation alongside surging development.

Venus and Mahrs

This chapter considers the impact of sweeping socioeconomic transformation on dating, sex, and marriage. Public interactions between men and women, including married couples, are heavily restricted in Qatar. This doesn’t stop young adults from hooking up surreptitiously, or gay and lesbian culture, which is illegal but as prevalent in Doha as anywhere else. The prohibitions related to dating contribute to high rates of marriage between first and second cousins, pairings that are typically arranged by families. The persistence of consanguinity in Qatar is partly explained by the historical connections between families and tribes in the Gulf. During the Bedouin era, weddings were modest events that reflected the dire circumstances of that time; today, these events are opulent fairy tales from Disney movies, with families competing to throw the “wedding of the year.” These dynamics are shaped by the ubiquity of Western popular culture, which venerates romantic love, and changing expectations about marriage. Drawing on elements of modern traditionalism, Qataris utilize an array of rhetorical and behavioral strategies that situate arranged, inner-family marriages as in step with contemporary ideals about matrimony.

Inventing Traditions

Mega sporting events, including the 2022 FIFA World Cup, align perfectly with Qatar’s economic agenda, which uses athletics as part of its nation-building ambitions. This chapter journeys through several sports worlds in Doha, where low-wage migrant workers are bused to soccer stadiums for televised games, so that it appears that the stands are filled with ardent fans, and where Kenyan runners are granted temporary Qatari citizenship in order to compete as natives. The government has spent a fortune to erect state-of-the-art facilities, host international sporting events, and send athletes to compete globally. Sports are also a primary platform for modern traditionalism’s motif of female empowerment. Despite these efforts, however, rates of women’s athletic participation remain in the single digits. Interviews with players, coaches, and spectators reveal the social processes underlying these dynamics. Finally, the chapter demonstrates how sportswomen overcome barriers to athletic participation by dynamically engaging with modern traditionalism, aligning their sports-related activities with empowerment, Islam, and family values.