National Identity, continued

Dear Gentle Readers: The comments in this post are a continuation from my last post. If you haven't read my last post, you may wish to do so first. (Not that I am telling you what to do; I would never do that. It was just a suggestion--no need to get so huffy about it.)

(Notice the modern high-rise with the traditional architecture added seemingly as an after-thought. A metaphor for the new Qatari identity?)

Based on the paintings at the FANAR Center for Islamic Culture, it would appear that Qatar's identity is based on fishing, pearling, hanging out in the desert with falcons, and fighting the occasional war with camels prancing in the background. The problem with this pictorial representation is that it has little to do with Qatari people's lives today. The pearling industry was destroyed by the development of cultured pearls in Japan; people live in air-conditioned homes in the city, not the desert; whatever fishing is done is relegated to foreign migrant laborers; and this peace-loving country tries very hard to avoid conflicts with any of its neighbors.


Most of the wealth comes from gas and oil, not camel milk and palm dates. The vast majority of working Qataris are employed in public service or education, and the cityscapes are mostly of the modern. western variety. Shopping is the national pasttime, and the malls (rather than the souqs) are the favored community gathering spots. English is printed and spoken everywhere. To be sure, most signage and public documents are ALSO in Arabic, and mosques stud the landscape.


As I think I've already mentioned, this hyper-modern development has happened astonishingly quickly--so quickly that many people are a little dazed and wondering who they have become. In case they forget, they can always go to FANAR to see pictures of their authentic national identity.

National Identity

Qatar's representation of its history:


Bedouin men in the desert enjoying tea and a talk. Note the obligatory falcon to the left. Note the absence of women in any of these paintings.

Qatar's self-image today--pro-business, pro-West, pro-money.

It's always interesting to me to observe how nations (or other communities) define themselves. It's particularly interesting in a place like Qatar. Although this area has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years, there is very little material evidence of this inhabitation--no old towns, very few artefacts and little to no written record. The Arabs who lived here were mainly Bedouins who lived in tents and moved frequently. They could not afford to be burdened with material possessions. Some people lived in towns and made their living by fishing and pearling, but apparently they lived in houses that did not last long. The culture was oral rather than literate, so there is no tradition of publishing (although there is a strong tradition of oral poetry.)
The other day we visited FANAR, a center designed to educate the public on Arab and especially Muslim identity. On the ceiling in one of the rooms were paintings depicting Qatari culture as they are defining it today. I have reproduced these paintings in this post.


Traditional buildings in town.

Qatar (like UAE) used to depend heavily on pearl diving for income. This industry came to end with the rise of the Japanese cultured pearls in the 1920s.

This is The Fort. It appears in all of the representations of Qatari history. This icon of the past was actually built in 1937. This is probably the oldest (or one of the oldest anyway) remaining building in Qatar!

Fishing has long been a source of food and income to all of the Gulf countries.

Doha Adventures, Part I

So, like, the other night I was hanging out at the Villagio Mall in Doha, Qatar. I was just enjoying the beautiful canals,


























and watching the gondolas float by gently,






































when I met this Iranian dude named Sultan. We exchanged glances and fell immediately in love. He swept me off my feet, dropped me in a gondola, and rowed me home to his palace.























At first, he was wonderful. He showered me with expensive jewelry,

and let me play with his priceless, fake falcons. (Whatever.)

But after an initial period of delirious honeymoon joy, he turned evil. He started to force-feed me opium from this priceless opium cup.

(In case you didn't believe that was an opium cup. Dear reader, I would never lie to you.)

I put up with the opium abuse, but then it got worse. I discovered that he had bestowed a priceless necklace on my former roommate, Karen (the Shameless Hussy)!

(Doha Adventures continued in next blog post)

Doha Adventures Part II

Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, suddenly, out of the morning mists appeared my very own Knight in Shining Armor! Sobbing, I confided my story to him. He was mesmerized by me and vowed to seek vengeance on the Sultan.

The Knight pulled out his sword and deftly chopped off the head of the Treacherous Sultan.

(This is a picture taken after I wiped off the blood.)

After taking care of the Sultan, my knight whisked me away from Doha by boat.

I came back a few days later, though, to attend the funeral of the Treacherous Sultan. Here is his cenotaph.

Since that day, I have been living in a Garden of Delight with my Knight in Shining Armor.

The End.

Crime and Punishment

I've become addicted to reading the crime section of the local paper. A few days ago there was an article about an Indonesian housemaid who was sentenced to "100 lashes following her conviction of maintaining illicit relations with her sponsor’s friend who had left the country for good before the matter came to the fore. The 41-year-old Egyptian lover, who was tried in absentia, was sentenced to a year imprisonment and a technical subsequent deportation."
Side by side in today's paper was an announcement reading "Three Asians were sentenced in absentia to a month's imprisonment and fined 1,000 Qatari riyals (about $365) for 'urinating in a public place under the influence of liquor.'
Compare this sentence to that of a Syrian truck driver who was fined 2,0000 riyals for reckless driving that led to the death of a local man. (No jail term, but the convict's driving license was suspended for three months.)

Sami al-Haj

http://cpj.org/reports/2006/10/prisoner.php

Today we toured Al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite news station. At the station, I met Sami al-Haj. He is a celebrity around here, but I confess I had not heard of him before today. In 2001, he was working as a cameraman in Afghanistan for Al-Jazeera when he arrested and detained in Guantanamo Bay for over six years. He was released in 2008, when he was sent back to Sudan. He remained hospitalized for several months before returning home. Now he is back in Doha working at Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera claims his case was a complete sham and that he was detained in order to harass Al-Jazeera. (The Bush administration was openly hostile to Al-Jazeera, claiming they supported terrorism and perhaps worked for Al Qaida. ) Click on the link above for a more detailed discussion of his case.

Women's Rights in Gulf States

(Taken from Freedomhouse.org)

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laura Ingalls
Women's Rights Gain Traction in Gulf Arab States, but Inequality Persists
Washington
February 11, 2009
Women in the Gulf Arab states are making small but notable gains in their struggle to achieve equality with men, according to a new Freedom House study released today. Women's rights advanced the most in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates over the last five years, but patriarchal laws and social customs continue to foster one of the world's most restrictive environments for women.
"Women's activists in the Gulf need support more than ever to transform these gains into real momentum," said Jennifer Windsor, Freedom House executive director. "The progress that has been made in several of the Gulf countries is a tribute to the tenacious efforts of women’s activists, who persevere despite a political environment which severely restricts the exercise of fundamental political rights and civil liberties."
Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Gulf Edition examines the state of women's rights in the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council from 2004 through 2008. The Middle East Partnership Initiative funded the study. It is the first installment of a larger report covering the entire Middle East and North Africa region due out in November.
The study examines five key areas based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
• nondiscrimination and access to justice• autonomy, security and freedom of the person• economic rights and equal opportunity• political rights and civic voice• social and cultural rights
According to the study's findings, Bahraini women enjoy the greatest degree of freedom in the Gulf region, followed by women in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman. Saudi Arabia lags significantly behind, with women there among the most restricted in the world.
Women are most likely to be able to exercise their economic and political rights, with more women entering the workforce, graduating from universities and participating in politics. Political rights increased the most for women in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Three countries showed improvement across all five categories: Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
However, systematic discrimination across the region continues to relegate women to subordinate status. Personal status laws, which govern family issues such as marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance, are a pervasive source of gender-based discrimination in the region. In some countries, women must obtain a male guardian's approval to marry, to work, and in extreme cases, to undergo mandatory surgery. In addition, domestic violence targeting national women as well as expatriate workers remains a significant problem.
Some of the study's key findings by country include:
Bahrain: The autonomy, security and freedom of Bahraini women improved with the adoption of the National Action Charter and ratification of the new constitution. Bahrain appointed its first female judge in 2006 and rescinded a law requiring women to gain a male guardian's approval to obtain a passport. However, women's access to justice remains low, with personal status laws not codified and judgments in Islamic courts based on individual judges' interpretations of Shari'a law. In the last year, Bahraini civil society has become more active, while the government and nongovernmental organizations are taking steps to address domestic violence.
Saudi Arabia: The country performs well below its neighbors in all categories, with women segregated, disenfranchised and requiring male approval to travel and access medical care. Gender inequality is built into Saudi Arabia's governmental and social structures, and is integral to the state-supported interpretation of Islam. Women's rights improved slightly, with women now allowed to study law, obtain their own identification cards, check into hotels alone and register businesses without first proving that they have hired a male manager.
Kuwait: Women's activists marked a major victory in 2006 when women voted and ran for the first time in municipal and national elections. Although no female candidates have been elected to parliament, three women received ministerial portfolios and two others became Municipal Council members. More than half of the working age women in Kuwait are in the workforce—a higher percentage than any other country in the region—after a five percent increase from 2003 to 2007. However, women cannot serve as judges or in the military. As elsewhere in the Gulf, they face unequal marital rights and cannot transfer their nationality to children and foreign-born husbands.
Oman: Women in Oman are beginning to play more important roles in the upper levels of government, are registering to vote in larger numbers and are increasingly running as parliamentary candidates. However, no women were elected in 2007 and the overall level of political and civic participation remains low. The testimony of men and women in Omani courts is now equal in most situations because of a new law on evidence. If properly implemented, this law would set an important precedent in the region. Despite the advancements, women continue to face significant legal and social obstacles, and are required to obtain the written consent of a male relative before undergoing any kind of surgery.
Qatar: The government has taken several steps toward promoting equality and addressing discrimination, including adopting the country's first codified family law and enacting a new constitution in 2004 that specifically prohibited gender-based discrimination. It remains to be seen whether these legal protections will be enforced. As of 2007, women are allowed to apply for their own passports, and in late 2008, they were accepted into the electrical and chemical engineering program at Qatar University for the first time. However, cultural and social norms continue to prevent women from participating in certain professions and taking part in society in representative numbers.
United Arab Emirates: The status of women is improving as the United Arab Emirates seeks to transform itself into a modern, financial hub. Emirati women are entering new professional fields, serving as judges and prosecutors and being appointed to high-profile positions within the government and private sector. More women are joining the workforce and the new codified family law is seen as a step forward. However, the UAE must carry out more reforms at both the government and societal level to achieve true gender equality. Women's ability to access justice through the courts and combat discrimination remains a concern.
Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties in the Gulf Arab states since 1972.