In light of my recent invitation attending the Fifth Annual Qatar-American Conference; the following article by staff writer Joanne McKenna, seemed to coincide with and beautifully describe Qatar’s ambiance and warm welcome to all its visitors.

* Please note: Joanne’s article was written in 1980, (twenty-five years ago).

QATAR

By Joanne McKenna

In March of 1980, as President of the National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA), I received an invitation to travel in early April to Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Syria and Lebanon. With a speaking tour of California already scheduled for mid-April and the NAAA convention and election of new officers set for early May, I reluctantly declined the invitation. The invitation was graciously reissued for a visit at my convenience and, if I chose, to bring with me whoever were elected President and Vice-President at the convention.

The trip was ultimately set for mid-June of 1980 and thus we traveled to the Arabian Gulf in the heat of summer when citizens of Arab countries tend to seek out cooler climes.

My first concern was how to dress appropriately for a trip to the Gulf. I contacted a protocol officer at the U.S. State Department for advice and was told that it didn’t matter what I wore because, as a woman, no officials would receive me. I found this advice strange since I had personally received the invitation. I elected to dress as I had previously on trips to the Middle East and not concern myself further about this subject.

We arrived in Doha, Qatar, at 6:40 p.m. on Friday, June 20, 1980. The ground temperature was 106oF with a brisk wind so I pulled a scarf over my hair. As we began the descent down the steps of the plane, the TV klieg lights went up on the tarmac and flash bulbs began popping. We were greeted by an assortment of dignitaries including the Undersecretary of Information and officials from the Emir’s office. Following a press conference in the airport VIP lounge, we were whisked off in two cars and taken to the hotel. Our suites were luxurious. Mine was scented with attar of roses and the coffee table in the living room groaned under a huge basket of fruit.

I awoke at 6:00 on Saturday morning filled with a sense of excitement. I unpacked and, remembering the fruit in the living room, took a mango and banana and breakfasted on the balcony overlooking the Arabian Gulf. The early morning air was already hot and, after taking a half-dozen pictures of the view from the balcony, I soon scurried back to the air conditioning.

At 8:00 a.m. our trio gathered in the coffee shop where we were joined by an official of the Ministry of Information and then set out in two cars for our day’s appointments.

In the morning light, Doha was gold framed by the emerald Gulf. Development was swift and buildings rose with rapid regularity. But the soul of Qatar was a desert soul reaching out to the green Gulf waters and it was a soul of exquisite beauty and nobility. My eyes blinked out the skyscrapers and traffic, focusing on the gold of the desert and the green of the open sea, and found the experience breathtaking.

Qatar is a tiny nation of about 4400 square miles and is bordered on the south by Saudi Arabia, on the southeast by the United Arab Emirates and on the west by Bahrain. There are 350 miles of shoreline along the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf. 70% of the income of Qatar comes from the export of petroleum and natural gas. This income has been used to diversify the economy by establishment of chemical, fertilizer, cement, steel and banking industries.

Most of Qatar’s population of about 700,000 live in and around the capital, Doha, which is a beautiful city filled with parks and gardens and boasts a delightful waterfront district.

At 10:00 a.m. we met with the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information.

At 10:30 a.m., we ascended the broad staircase of the royal palace and met with His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, and His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Heir Apparent, Minister of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. (Sheikh Hamad succeeded his father as Emir in 1995 and is currently Qatar’s head of state.)

Qatar, a monarchy, was ruled by Bahrain from the 1700s until the mid 1800s when Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire began vying for control. It was a British protectorate from 1916 until September 3, 1971 when Qatar declared its independence.

Following our meeting at the royal palace, we met with the Minister of Information who took us to a luncheon at 1:00 p.m. at the Doha Club.

We returned to the hotel after the luncheon and were interviewed by an assortment of media representatives. In the late afternoon, we returned to the Ministry of Information for a TV taping. Our interviewer was a woman who had been a TV personality since 1960.

After the interview, representatives of the Information Ministry presented us with a video tape of our interview, and we watched our arrival the evening before on the afternoon TV news. We were presented with gifts of leather briefcases – black for my male colleagues and brown for me.

Back at the hotel we opened the briefcases and discovered in mine a black silk abayeh (cloak) and the magnificent traditional dress of Qatar – royal purple chiffon with gold embroidery and sequins - and a damascene Bedouin coffee pot. The NAAA men were given lengths of fine shirting material – for shirts or the traditional dish-dasha (ankle length shirts), damascene Bedouin coffee pots and worry beads.

Later, in my suite, I switched on the TV and found that the evening fare included Fantasy Island with Arabic subtitles.

On Sunday morning at 8:30 we visited the Qatar National Museum. The museum complex includes the Old Palace, ceremonial buildings, the State Museum, the Lagoon, the Marine Museum and Aquarium. The Old Palace was built in 1912 for the ruler of Qatar and was occupied first by Sheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Thani. In 1972, it was rebuilt as a national museum designed to preserve for the people of Qatar a portion of the past too valuable to lose to encroaching development. It presents the lives and mores of the people who have lived for the past 200,000 years in what is now Qatar – from the Stone Age to the Oil Age. It contains ethnological, archeological, ecological and historical material and was supervised throughout by the Emir himself.

It is a magnificent monument to a magnificent people and a truly outstanding museum by any standard. The Director of the museum welcomed us and served us glasses of steaming tea in his airy office. Then we went off with a guide to tour the museum complex. The exhibits on desert life were fascinating. We toured the ceremonial and living quarters of the palace. Five areas are dedicated to a display of the traditional Bedouin lifestyle, showing how the tribe adapted to nomadic desert life, with examples of costumes, arts and crafts, utensils and tools. As we proceeded to the lagoon to view the ancient dhows moored for posterity – and as a reminder of a history of pearl diving and fishing – I had a sudden and personal appreciation for the adaptive abilities of the Bedouin. The temperature was about 120oF, the humidity was high and the sun was blistering. I realized that I was in the early stages of heat exhaustion and could not go on. The new President of NAAA was having the same reaction and we returned to the cool interior of the museum to sip lemonade, leaving our more heat resistant Vice-President to continue the tour of the sea craft and the aquarium.

Later in the morning we toured the University of Qatar, visiting with about a dozen professors and department heads. The University was built in 1973 and encompassed colleges for men and women. There were 24 departments, including sciences, humanities, social sciences, and Islamic studies. Beginning with an enrollment of 300 in 1973, in 1980 the student population was 2000, with 60% of the student body from Qatar and 40% from elsewhere. The student to faculty ratio was 12 to 1. One half of the student population was female and shared the same faculty as the male students. We met with the Director of the University and found the physical plant to be attractive, efficient and well supplied. We visited the chemistry lab and talked with a female student involved in research.

We went on to meet with the Undersecretary of Education and then went to the home of U.S. Ambassador and Mrs. Andrew Kilgore for a bountiful lunch. Other guests included the Qatari Minister of Information and Director of the Emir’s Office, the Technical Advisor to the Emir, the Director of Finance, the Minister of Health and other business, governmental and media leaders of Qatar.

Ambassador and Mrs. Kilgore charmed us and we were delighted when they returned to the U.S. and he founded The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

We returned to the hotel, packed and were taken to the airport VIP lounge. The Undersecretary of Information and another official of the Ministry walked us out onto the tarmac for our plane. We left Doha, reluctantly, at 6:40 p.m, leaving a part of ourselves in that beautiful, generous and hospitable little country.

The gold and emerald of Doha are embedded forever as jewels in my heart. I wore my magnificent Qatari gown at lectures and, once, for a Cleveland newspaper article, and I wore it with pride that for a brief moment my life was one with the beautiful people of Qatar.

May God be with them always.