Qatari Women and Education

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Contents: Qatar Women | Misconceptions about Women in Qatar | How free are women in Qatar? | Why do women in Qatar cover their faces? | Qatari Women and Education | Qatari Women, Love and Marriage | Changing our Perceptions

Education

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Statistics have shown that Qatari women are some of the most clever, hard working women in the entire region, and the highest achievers. The US, keen to encourage American women to take up science subjects, has even sent out experts to examine why so many women in Qatar take up engineering!

All of this is down to the hard work and reforms of the Emir's wife, Her Highness Sheikha Moza, who has tirelessly worked and campaigned at improving the education system in Qatar and at increasing the amount of opportunities for girls and women.

Many Qatari women are now more educated and better qualified that their male counterparts! According to the CIA World Factbook, the literacy rate of females in Qatar is 88.6%, one of the highest in the Arab world.

More and more Qatari women are also going to university; women from more liberal families even go abroad to study, and an increasing number of Qatari women are pursuing post-graduate studies, at home and abroad. Even women who got married young and had children are now returning to university in their thirties and forties to continue their education.

Even women who got married young and had children are now returning to university in their thirties and forties...

Qatari women work in all fields, from teaching to medicine and from business to engineering. There are Qatari policewomen, Qatari female pilots, Qatari female sportswomen, even Qatari female Formula 1 racers! Qatari women have the right to vote and to run for office. There really is no glass ceiling today for Qatari women; there are Qatari women who are CEOs, managers, medical consultants, and even government ministers. A number of Qatari women have even assumed high positions working in the United Nations.

In 2003, Sheikha Al Mahmoud was appointed as Minister of Education, the first woman in both Qatar and the entire region to become a government minister. Aisha Al Mannai was the first ever woman to become Dean of the College of Sharia and Islamic studies at Qatar University, a post formerly reserved for men. alone The President of Qatar University, Sheikha Al Misned, again is a woman, as is the Vice President, Sheikha bint Jabor al Thani.

Just recently, Sheikha Maha Mansour Al Thani became the head of Qatar's Supreme Judicial Council, making her one of the first female judges in the entire region, a position which for centuries Islamic scholars and sheikhs have disputed upon. The fact that the Emir himself chose his daughter Hind as his political advisor goes to show that the Emir believes that Qatari women can achieve anything they set their hearts on.

Next: Love and Marriage