Cultural Sociology of the Middle
East, Asia, & Africa: An Encyclopedia
Qatar: 1920 to Present: Middle East
Contributors: Andrea L. Stanton & Edward Ramsamy & Peter J. Seybolt & Carolyn M.
Elliott
Print Pub. Date: 2012
Online Pub. Date: May 31, 2012
Print ISBN: 9781412981767
Online ISBN: 9781452218458
DOI: 10.4135/9781452218458
Print pages: I334-I335
This PDF has been generated from SAGE knowledge. Please note that the pagination
of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
Middle East Technical Universi
Copyright ©2012 SAGE knowledge
University of DenverRutgers, The State University of New JerseyUniversity of
VermontUniversity of Vermont
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The State of Qatar is a small peninsula situated in the Persian Gulf and located west
of Saudi Arabia, northeast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), southeast of Kuwait and
Iraq, and southwest of Iran. It is an emirate (a territory ruled by an emir, who is the head
of a royal family) with a mix of sharia (Islamic law) and a civil code of law comprising the
constitution. It has been ruled by the Al-Thani family since 1916, based on the signing
of an agreement with the British Empire establishing Qatar as one of its protectorates
in the Middle East. Qatar gained independence in 1971 after it considered joining a
federation with Bahrain and UAE (seven former Trucial States), a federation that failed
to materialize.
The emir and many of the cabinet of ministers, as well as other high-ranking officials,
are members of the Al-Thani family and are overwhelmingly male. However, some
high-level appointments have been made outside the ruling family. Because of the
concentration of power within the Al-Thani family, divisions or disputes among members
of this large kin group influence political relations. In 1998, Qatar held open elections
for a municipal council. This was the first election ever held in Qatar, and the campaign
was not only lively but drew in large portions of Qatar's citizenry. While a number of
women ran for office, none were elected in this first vote. Both women and men turned
out to vote for representatives from their residential sectors. The municipal council
represents local residential sectors to other governmental bodies.
Qatar Citizenry
The citizens of Qatar, or the Qataris, comprise the Arab Bedouins; the Hadars, mostly
of Iranian descent; and the Abd or Alabd, the descendants of slaves from east Africa.
In addition, the Hadars were the settled townspeople, though many had their origins
among the Bedouin tribes' people. They are also called the “sea people,” as not only
were they often settled close to the sea but they also took part in pearl diving.
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Qataris are strongly characterized as being family oriented, and every member of a
larger family (a clan) is linked with tribal affiliations, religious denominations (Sunni
or Shia, the two political sects in Islam dating back to the question of who would
succeed the Prophet Muhammad after his demise), and local patterns of historical
settlements. The government has established complacent policies regarding foreign
workers' identities by allowing them to exercise their own cultural rights, speak their
own language (e.g., the schools' medium of instruction can be in their native language),
and practice their own religion, among other things. However, there are cases of
labor discrimination and abuses; for example, some domestic workers are subject to
commercial sexual exploitation.
Based on a study conducted by the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs of the U.S.
Department of State, approximately 85 percent of the total population of 1,699,435
comprises expatriates (mostly foreign workers); the official 2010 census was the first
in the Arab world, spearheaded by the Qatar Statistics Authority under the supervision
of Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar. The population
has a staggering gender gap between males (1,284,739) and females (414,696), and
90 percent of the labor force is made up of foreign workers. Eighty percent of the total
population lives in the capital, Doha. The capital is famous for its illuminating waterfront
architecture, exciting promenades, and relaxing parks. In addition, its local food is a mix
of different cuisines as a result of the many foreign workers, particularly from Iran, India,
and some southeast Asian countries.
Economy and Politics
In recent years, Qatar has served as a prominent partner in contributing to peace-
building and peacekeeping efforts in the international community. It mediated conflicts
in Western Sahara, Yemen, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Indonesia, Somalia, and famously in
Darfur and Lebanon. It has also involved itself in deep negotiations between the
Palestinian authorities, Hamas, and Fatah. Qatar's involvement in all these mediations
can be vindicated by its lack of ties to any supranational regional powers, and its
strategy of neutrality made it an unbiased mediator in conflicts. Its unbiased stance
can be determined from the fact that Qatar is the only nation in the Middle East that
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has meaningful relations [p. I334 ↓ ] to differing degrees with the United States, Iran,
Hezbollah, and Israel.
Qatar currently ranks third-highest in large gas reserves and 12th-largest in oil reserves
in the world, based on the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook, and has
the second-highest gross domestic product (GDP) based on purchasing-power-parity
(PPP) per capita in the world (highest in the Arab world), as stated in the 2010 World
Economic Outlook Database of the International Monetary Fund. The government is
now concentrating on developing a knowledge-based economy by strengthening the
links among the education (specifically, in the fields of science and technology), energy,
and financial (business) sectors.
Nassef M. Adiong Middle East Technical University
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Further Readings
Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, U.S. Department of State. “Background Note: Qatar.”
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5437.htm (Accessed December 2010).
Central Intelligence Agency. “Country Comparison: Natural Gas—Proved Reserves.”
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2179rank.html
(Accessed December 2010).
International Monetary Fund. “World Economic Outlook Database, October 2010:
Report for Selected Countries and Subjects.” http://www.imf.org (Accessed December
2010).
Qatar Statistics Authority. “Results of the 2010 Census of Population, Housing,
and Establishments.” http://www.qsa.gov.qa/QatarCensus/Pdf/Census%20Results
%20Booklet.pdf (Accessed December 2010).
Zahlan, Rosemarie Said. The Creation of Qatar . New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
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