Qatari Women Unveiled!

Disclaimer

My apologies to my Qatari readers (more than a few!) for the sensationalist tone of the above caption. Westerners are a curious sort, and I know that many want to see just what is under the abayas. This was taken from a painting on public display, so no one’s virtue is being compromised.

The dresses you see are of a traditional and still common design. More often though you will see dresses with a more modern feel to them. Many are far more ornate than this. In public, a black robe (abaya) is worn over the dress, along with a hijab or shela, two different types of head coverings. Over this, most women wear niqab, or a veil covering the face. The amount of covering that occurs depends upon how public the venue is. Women who are completely covered in the souqs for instance, might uncover their faces at a lecture, or at someone’s home.

Some western women who try to blend in wear an abaya but no head covering. This usually doesn’t work, as it is an odd, non-traditional combination that actually attracts attention rather than deflects it. Those who wear the whole get up get “Qatari privilege”, and can pass unnoticed. Even if it’s discovered that such women are western, the immediate assumption is that they are married to a Qatari, a terrifying prospect to any would-be Indian Romeo.

Western women needn’t wear such things of course, even the Arab ex-pats from Syria, Egypt and elsewhere rarely wear a niqab or abaya, although they do usually wear hijab (hair covering). Qataris on the other hand wear them almost universally. It’s a small town in many ways, and their reputation is at stake.

Eating Around

They have cardamom flavored chewing gum here (I said it’s in everything). Other popular flavors are coffee, banana and mustaka, which is a plant extract… sort of a bitter mint with strong notes of cleaning fluid. Qatar is rather like a parallel world to the west, everything you might need or want is here, but in ways that are subtly different from the west.

Restaurants are abundant. Because 80% of the population are hard-working ex-pats, and few have the time or inclination to cook, take-away is a huge business. The diversity of choices is enormous, and reflects the nationalities of the people here. There is great diversity in price and sophistication too.

At the top end, the fine dining establishments are similar to what you would find in any other big city. Quality and presentation meet international standards and they follow most of the same food trends. Those restaurants affiliated with hotels will have a wine list as well. Prices tend to be somewhat lower than those in Europe or the states, mainly due to lower labor costs and no taxes. No Qatari would be caught dead working in a restaurant. The labor force is all imported from third world locations.

The cheapest restaurant I have found was a place down in the computer souqs that caters to Nepali ex-pats. For five rials, about one Euro, you get a thali platter of chicken and several vegetable side dishes. The waiters come around and refill the side dishes as many times as you wish. No one leaves hungry. The place is always packed. The Nepalis unfortunately occupy the bottom of the pecking order here, but even they can afford to eat out frequently.

There are hundreds of small grill restaurants here. You may eat in, or more commonly, call your order in and go pick it up. Many places offer home delivery as well. Businesses of all types here usually have curb service. You pull up to the door and honk your horn, and someone comes running out to serve you. Dry cleaning, restaurants, small grocers, all sorts of businesses operate this way. If someone ever mentions eating “Beep beep chicken”, they are referring to curb service restaurants. Beep beep chicken is almost cheaper than groceries.

International food chains are here too. More interesting than these are certain “knock-off” restaurants that compete with them. Popeye’s chicken is here, but not the one you are thinking of. The fake Popeye’s is run by a Lebanese guy (with a remarkable resemblance to the cartoon character), and is arguably better than the original. The food is fairly similar, but somewhat Arabified. “Pizza Hat” is here too. The best burger in town is found at Twinky Sterling. Don’t ask me about the name, it’s anyone’s guess, but their logo is almost exactly like the Pillsbury dough boy. I am assured that this is a Qatari operation. Their burger (hamburgers here are called either “burgers” or “beefburgers” to avoid any confusion that they are made with ham), consists of two patties interspersed with layers of cheese, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, a fried egg, raw cucumbers, sauces I can’t identify and other stuff. But it’s good. No, really! Twinky gives you discount coupons (“Twinky bucks”) worth 30% of what you spent to keep you coming back.

Cafes and patisseries are everywhere too. Qataris love coffee, and diabetes is the national disease. Anything sweet is fabulously popular. Other restaurant choices are Thai, Korean, Ethiopian, French, Italian, Japanese… sushi is pretty popular. Our favorite sushi place is a speakeasy. The place is always packed, mostly with ex-pats. They serve Foster’s lager and Japanese beers. While liquor is “legal” here, restaurants can’t serve it unless they are affiliated with a hotel. How this place gets away with it I am not sure. Perhaps they know someone. We never drink, but the place also happens to have very authentic sushi and a conscientious chef (from Japan). The last time we were there the Japanese ambassador was seated next to us. He ended up feeding raw squid to my oldest kid, and marveling at how much he liked it.

Juice stalls are everywhere too. They are remarkably similar except in price. The closer you get to the center of town, the cheaper they are. Out in the suburbs similar fare is double what it is downtown (but still cheap). Vegetarians can get by all right here. There are a few vegetarian restaurants, and most places have at least some vegetarian choices.

Most restaurants have “family” areas, where unescorted men may not sit (lone women are welcome). The purpose of these areas is to provide a place where women may let their guard down regarding modesty, without being stared at. There are many, many single male ex-pats here, and the male to female ratio is 2:1 because of imported labor, so staring happens. Women without an abaya will be stared at, but those wearing one are feared!

The family areas vary, but most have private booths or even private rooms. Once inside the abayas come off. There is a buzzer with which to ring the waiter. Eating is a fairly relaxed process; it can easily take a couple of hours to have lunch if you want it to. Many places have couches rather than chairs, and people recline with their tea for as long as they want. A lot of these places have play areas for the kids too, or often as not, restaurant staff may come and watch them for you. We have had waiters actually buy small gifts for our kids (a sure sign we over-tip!).

Some of our favorite restaurants are seafood places along the waterfront. They are surprisingly affordable despite the prime location. I haven’t figured this out yet, but prices for certain types of food seem standard despite the venue. I mean in the west, if you want food at a sporting event or a theme park, you expect to pay substantially more than you would for the same thing elsewhere, …supply and demand right? Here certain things cost the same no matter where you go. A glass of tea for instance, or certain types of snacks are the same price at a Gulf Cup match as they are at your corner dive (juice stalls are an exception, I don’t know why). Laws don’t mandate prices, the only thing I can figure is that Qataris are probably highly resistant to getting gouged. It’s kind of nice actually, simple food and drink is always pretty cheap whether you are in the souqs or at the zoo or wherever.

In light of this, one of the best deals in town are the dhow boats that ply the harbor. A “dhow” is a traditional wooden ship still used in the Gulf. They let you aboard for ten rials, then you can stay on for as long as you wish. The food and drink is cheap, and the setting is fabulous, especially at sunset. They don’t go far, just back and forth to the same docks.

Groceries here are pretty reasonable in general, but you have to watch it, some things come at a real premium. A pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream will set you back $12.50, but Haagen Dazs is half of that, and Arabic ice cream is a small fraction of that. Some western products are abundant and cheap, and others are quite costly. You can walk through aisles of toilet paper and find it as cheap as $2 for a dozen rolls, or as much as $3 per roll. As long as you don’t have strong brand loyalties, you can get by pretty cheaply here.

Modern grocery stores are everywhere, and similar to what you would find in the US or Europe. They are putting the squeeze on the traditional markets, but I think both will survive, with different specialties. The traditional food souqs I have described before, but I didn’t mention the weekend markets. These operate on Friday and Saturday (our weekend, Sunday is a regular work-day), and some sections are open everyday. They sell livestock, butchered or on the hoof, vegetables, and seafood. The savings aren’t great unless you are buying large quantities of something, but they are interesting places.

Pretty much everyone lives within a kilometer or so of a small convenience store carrying basic staples. These are usually open until 11 or 12 at night. The one in my neighborhood is staffed with just one Indian gentleman, who is there from dawn until near midnight, every day. He might get time off from time to time, but if so I have never noticed it, he is there every time I go in.

One of my children’s favorite activities is going as a group up to the corner store, and buying things with their own money. When we first arrived, my son was so impressed with this idea that he took it upon himself to go off to the store on his own (he was four at the time). He found some Qatari boys and recruited them and off they went. They got ice cream, God only knows how they paid for it, but my son wasn’t too clear about how to get home. The boys took him back to where he found them, but beyond that he wasn’t sure.

In the meantime we were looking for him, frantically in fact. We were just about at our wits end when a Landcruiser pulls up out front and out hops our son. One of the boys’ father dropped him off, my son had memorized our address (bravo!). He was only a couple of hundred yards from home in the first place, but it put a fright in all of us.

Painting by a Qatari surrealist. The themes here sum it up pretty well.

On With the Show

The Doha Players had their first meeting since the night of the bombing last night. They are an amateur theatre group, and are quite good. They have their own building, which unfortunately was the site of last week’s bombing. The rumor is that the bomber was present for the first half of the show, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, then he left at intermission and slammed a Landcruiser full of explosives into the building. The director, Jon Adams, a professor from the UK, was killed at the scene, and about a dozen others were injured, two seriously.

A collection is being taken up for his family. The Doha Players website is here, although I don’t think the part about the collection is up yet. Send them an e-mail if you want to give them financial or moral support. The mood of the Players was defiant, the show will go on. Jon’s widow said that that is what he would have wanted. They are looking for a new venue for their upcoming productions, and will restore/rebuild their theatre despite the danger.

Scotland Yard is assisting the Qataris, as well as French explosives experts, and others. The area is still cordoned off, and the investigation is still pending. No word on the type of explosives used, or whether or not the bomber had accomplices. They say that the building will be re-opened to the players tomorrow, and that reconstruction will begin as soon as is practical.

In some ways the story sounds as if this was a lone bomber, someone of the type who would go shoot up a McDonald's or something in America. But on the other hand, he had a car-bomb. That is no small thing to rig up. I find it hard to believe he did that himself. The force of the bomb was fairly weak considering, indicating perhaps "amateurs". It's all speculation so far.

Three cheers for British resilience!

As Green as it gets

Of Mice and Men

I can’t help but love Qataris. As maddening as this country can be at times, the people here really make it a great place. There is a major cultural hurdle to get over of course, but once you cross it you’ll find the people here amazingly friendly and sincere. It’s common enough for them to drop by, unannounced of course, bearing gifts and food. We reciprocate, then they in turn strive to outdo us. It’s almost a contest of sorts, to see who can be the most generous. Other Arab ex-pats do this as well, but none so much as the Qataris.

They have come a long way fast… too fast perhaps. Just 50 short years ago this place had more in common with Chad than the west. In some ways it still does. The tribal traditions are strong, yet the universal exposure to western culture has indelibly changed things. It’s anybody’s guess where things will go from here. I hope that Qataris can find a way to “modernize” without losing those essential things that make them who they are.

Traditional life was simple here. A family possessed very little, and needed very little. While poor, they would give you the last morsel of their food if you were passing through. They had deep faith and not much else. Homes were constructed of mudbrick and palm thatch, if they weren’t simply tents. Food was cooked outdoors, often by men, while women handled the set up and break down of tents. Rice, meat, dates and camel milk were the staples, plus fish in the coastal towns like Doha. The elderly people here all grew up this way. Illiteracy was widespread.

Contrast that to the modern city we see today. It’s as if Qatar has crossed a thousand years in fifty. The stress of this change is evident too. Among young people you can sense that there are often conflicted views about roles and responsibilities. The image of the independent desert warrior looms large, but the need for a good education and a career is widely appreciated as well (not to mention “free”…Qatar pays for it’s youth to attend any University that they can get into). The compromise that many strike is to go ahead and get that great job… but not work!

Stress is low here. The pace is slow, and few things are ever urgent. Drinking tea with friends ranks higher than most deadlines… and there is a reason for this.… for a Qatari, friends are far more important than anything work-related. Society here values piety and character over money and position.

The stress that exists here for ex-pats is of a sort that most aren’t used to. It’s situational stress that results from a system that seems not to work. Few things here will ever get done the way you think you want them to. You can be fluent in Arabic and have long experience with the culture, and still things will typically not happen according to plan. The trick is to be very flexible. In the end, everything does get done.

We learned this early on, whether it was dealing with immigration officials, or trying to get our flight tickets for last summer’s trip, things are difficult to accomplish on your own. “Wasda” is what works here…roughly translated to “influence”. It’s a small country, and very gregarious at that, so pretty much everyone knows some official in the proper Bureau to help get your process kick-started. Typically the bureaucratic brick wall will frustrate your plans, so you call someone who has a brother-in-law who knows a guy that can get you what you need. In the end it all works.

Classic Qatar!

She's a big girl now. What a difference ten weeks makes!

Shopping in Qatar

The shopping in Qatar is incredible. Pretty much anything you can conceive of is here, with only a few obscure exceptions (boric acid based ant poison comes to mind, thanks for sending that, Mom!). Products and people from every corner of the globe find their way here. The choices are mind-boggling.

There are many options for how and where to shop. The traditional markets (souqs) are still thriving. We try to shop there whenever possible. The oldest in town is Souq Waqif. It is currently getting a major facelift, but it was a charmingly decrepit maze of narrow covered walkways, with shops containing darn near anything. The renovation strives to maintain this flavor, and it is being given a new “old” look, with rough stones and old style fixtures.

Souq Waqif is divided into sections based upon the products sold. For the most part, a vendor’s competitors are also his neighbors, so bargaining is fierce and furious. Probably the most interesting section is the spice souq. It’s easy to find, just follow your nose. The shops are full of huge, carefully groomed piles of brightly colored spices, some of which we hadn’t even heard of. They are sold by weight, and do a brisk business as Qatari cooking is heavy on spices.

“Hot” spices aren’t terribly popular among Qataris, Qatari dishes are rather very subtle and careful combinations of several spices, creating a great depth and complexity of flavor. The “basics” of Qatari spicing are cardamom (it’s in everything), cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, dried lemon, and saffron (very cheap here). Many more are used too, but these form the basis of many dishes. Lots of curry is sold too, of different colors and heat, but mostly to the South Asian ex-pats, who incidentally outnumber the Qataris by a large margin. Cardamom has another use. If you break open a cardamom pod, and eat several of the small black seeds inside, it makes a great breath mint.

Hardware, toys, shoes, clothes, food, honey, housewares, and a million other things are also sold in Souq Waqif. The souq is getting stiff competition from the large retailers in the malls and western style shopping centers, and in certain market categories the competition is crushing the little guys. You can really see the toll among retailers of mass-produced goods from Asia, like toys for instance. They are getting smoked, and one sure-fire sign is that the quality level of their imported goods is usually poor. On the other hand, the big retailers can’t even touch certain traditional sectors. Traditional products include tailor made clothes, custom furniture and furnishings, tents, incense and oils, and generally anything hand or custom made. Basically the market is working itself out, and there will probably always be a Souq Waqif, just some of the goods on offer may change.

Another thing available at Souq Waqif that no Qatari home should be without is large pots. You think you have seen large pots? Check these out, they are up to six feet across and three deep. In practice though, the tiny three foot across version will do for most folks. An entire sheep can be boiled in these (and frequently is). Special gas burners are purchased to go with it. These come in pieces and have to be set up. The cooking is usually done outside, often at the “country homes” or farms that so many Qataris have. It’s not uncommon to have your 100 or so closest friends come over, so there really is a practical need for these. Also they are great for cooking meals at the masjids (mosques), you can whip up rice 100 kilos at a time in these babies.

Some of the best traditional food comes from Souq Waqif. A few of the grill restaurants there are legendary, and known to all Qataris, yet often they are so non-descript that a foreigner would miss them. Qatari friends are essential for navigating these. Another thing here, and everywhere else in town is the ubiquitous juice stall. For as little as 50 cents, you can have fresh fruit smoothies blended while you wait. Mango, orange, banana, guava, whatever, they’ve got it. They are invariably run by Indians, and as a result usually sell inexpensive Indian food as well.

Souq Waqif has been around for as long as Doha. The next step in the slow evolution towards mega-malls were large, usually air-conditioned buildings filled with small independent shops. The cloth souq is like this, and parts of the gold souq. These places don’t feel like a flea market, but neither are they corporate shopping experiences. Many have small fountains etc (Places with single digit rainfall in centimeters love fountains). The quality of manufactured goods in these places is usually better, but again it’s the traditional shops that have the real edge here. The cloth souq has some fabrics that defy description, and the tailors here are amazing.

The gold souq is fabulous. I used to be in the business, and I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like what I have seen here. The gold souq itself though is not where you find the super high-end creative stuff. The gold souq primarily carries just gold, or gold with semi-precious stones. The items are for the most part 22k gold and are sold by weight. They are manufactured in India and other places nearby, so the labor is cheap, and as a result the premium above the price of gold is very low. Qataris typically own a lot of gold, and it is an essential part of a woman’s dowry that she receives from her husband. Bridal jewelry is striking, massive, and very ornate. On the other end of the scale small trinkets may be purchased for $15 or $20.

The really high-end jewelry shops specialize in insanely large and creative jewelry. This is where you find your emphasis on precious stones. Palm Beach doesn’t even have stuff like this. The Gulf is probably one of the very few places on earth where there is a large concentration of people who don’t mind dropping huge sums of money for jewelry. Combine that with the fact that their tastes include large ornate pieces (western ladies would consider many of these “gaudy”) and you have a recipe for sponsoring a lot of creativity. If you are a jeweler, this is where you want to be. Security in these places isn’t remarkable, due to Qatar’s low crime rate.

Within the last few years, shopping malls have made their debut in Doha. I guess there’s about five or so now, with one huge four story monstrosity near the north end of the corniche (waterfront). The malls are highly popular, mostly due to their ambience and air-conditioning! They are actually crowded in the evenings and on week-ends. One mall here has an indoor roller coaster. Another has this bizarre whimsical series of playground type swimming pools, a hockey rink (lots of Canadian ex-pats here), and an enormous ice-slide that you sled down, which is amazingly popular in the summer. People love waiting in line for this because the whole room is freezing cold.

Businesses that appear to do well in the malls are electronics shops, furniture and houseware places, internet cafes, restaurants of all kinds, grocery stores (many of the huge western style groceries are in malls), and miscellaneous specialty shops. Clothes shops are another story. Some do great and some don’t. The places that assume that they can simply open up a branch in Qatar without tailoring their strategy to this market are the ones who don’t do well. People here do buy western clothes, but tastes are somewhat different than the west. Another major consideration is advertising.. The “standards of decency” here are pretty high, and people get offended easily by ads that are too revealing. A western model showing normal clothes isn’t a big deal, but ads that obviously trade on sex are frowned upon.

An example of this is found among the photos below. Westerners sometimes have a hard time grasping this, because we are so de-sensitized to this kind of advertising, but to the Qataris this is overtly obscene. Qatar has no laws against this kind of advertising (as long as the women aren’t actually nude), but the people themselves find it abhorrent. The Gulf as a whole is probably the most socially conservative region in the world. People here are more conservative than your great-grandparents by a wide margin (I don’t care how old you are, they are still more conservative than your great-grandparents!).

Here we see nineteenth century style swimming suits for both men and women. To a Qatari lady, showing a bit of ankle is considered quite racy, and showing the shape of the body is downright scandalous. Young people “date” much the way Americans did in the nineteenth century. A potential suitor may court a lady by first asking permission to do so from her father, then he may (or may not) be able to come and sit in her parlor (majlis) and speak with her, fully chaperoned of course by her family. Later, if they are an “item”, they may go out together with a chaperone. All of this wouldn’t sound so strange in say 1850, but to modern Americans it is an alien concept.

To people coming from Qatari culture, where to even be allowed to look at a woman’s face is considered a distinct privilege, western advertising seems unfathomably risqué. What I can’t figure out is the naivety of retailers who don’t understand this. Look at the photo below. The picture is obviously suggestive, more so by the posture and expression of the model than what is actually revealed, but the message is clear. Who in Qatar would allow their daughters to shop there? How many daughters would want to wear that label? What does it say about them? Qatar has the right approach to these questions though. They don’t ban things like Saudi (which would only make them more sought after), instead they ignore it and let the market work itself out. Most of the retailers who barged in here with big ideas about changing standards in Qatar have either packed up and left, or changed their strategy dramatically.

The follow up to this particular photo is as follows. I took the picture a while back, when the store was still fairly “new”. Now that some time has elapsed I have noticed big changes. The clothes are dramatically different. Instead of booty clothes they sell fashionable full-length skirts, and generally more modest attire. The booty dresses are still there, but they are de-emphasized. And the ads still feature western models, but without their tongues hanging out.

It’s not that there isn’t a market for sexy clothes here, it’s a huge business actually, but they have to be of the right kind, and sold in the right way. There are a lot of “Victoria’s Secret” type shops here (I mean c’mon, look at the birth rate for crying out loud!). The successful ones accurately reflect the Gulf psychology. They are enticing, but low key from the outside, and you have to get inside, in private, to see the good stuff. Stores in general don’t ban either gender, but these shops subtly but distinctly discourage males from entering, creating an atmosphere of comfort and safety for the women. When she makes her purchase, ideally the woman isn’t handed a bag with the name of the shop emblazoned on it in big bold letters for the whole world to see. In short, in order to do well in the Gulf, Victoria needs to keep her secret, well, a secret!

The picture below of the Souq Faleh area is typical of the older, downtown area. This is the area that was built up after souq Waqif, but before the western stores came in. This part of town is getting a big face lift too, but it will take awhile. This area is known for groceries. You can buy 100 kilo bags of rice (free delivery), take your goats and sheep here to be slaughtered, buy vegetables and fruit, live chickens, ducks and geese, or just about anything else that is edible.

The chicken souqs are great. They have a large area up front filled with birds, and you either select a healthy prospect and have the man catch it, or let him pick one for you. He then says a brief blessing, and lops off it’s head. Next he throws the body into a large metal bucket where it leaps around for a while. When the bucket is silent he withdraws the carcass, guts it, and throws it into what looks like a large clothes dryer. This is a machine that I had no idea existed before I came to Qatar. It is an automated chicken-plucker. There is some water inside, and they throw the chicken in there, and spin it around for a while at high speed. When it stops the chicken is plucked clean! At this point the guy will either cut your bird into pieces, or give it to you whole, with the giblets. They pack it up nice and you leave with a package that looks very much like what you would buy at any grocery store… except it’s still warm.

Shopping mall

Food court and play area.

Souq Faleh

Chicken Souq

Eggs and parakeets.

Typical Example of Advertising Offensive to Qataris

Reality Check

There was a car bombing here Saturday night. An Egyptian IT engineer, Omar Ali, loaded his Landcruiser with explosives and slammed it into a crowded theatre in Doha. A Shakespeare play was in progress, and fortunately the theatre hall was well away from the entry, so casualties were fewer than they could have been. As it was one man was killed(the director), and about a dozen were injured. All but two of the injured were treated and released that night.

The perpetrator had a wife and three children, including a month old baby. Unbelievable.

The victim was a British professor. His wife was there too but was unhurt. I didn’t know him but friends of ours did. The injured were mostly Qataris and Indians. Most people here are pretty stoic about it, I don't know of anyone who is leaving, for instance. We have expected something like this since the outset. If we offset that risk with the lack of certain other risks here, it still works out to be a pretty safe country. That was the first real random violence attack in Qatar. There was another bombing a couple of years ago, but it was directed at a certain Chechen leader. Those responsible were caught (and no they weren’t sentenced to death) and repatriated to Russia, where they are serving long sentences.

The Qataris have been great. There was a huge demonstration against violence the following day, about 4000, mostly Qataris attended. Various people spoke out against the perpetrators of such bombings, including Yusuf Qaradawi, a famous cleric here. He more or less “ex-communicated” the people who would do this. He has a show on al-Jazeera and is pretty well known.

Otherwise everything is fine here.