Newsaholic

  As people around the world watch videos of men smiling and waving flags outside Doha’s stadiums, they are only seeing one side of the story : what this country is like for a man. In fact, they probably aren’t seeing many women at all. I’m a 23-year-old Qatari woman, and I don’t longingly look out towards the West and think, “I wish I wasn’t so oppressed.” Western experiences aren’t all the same. But since I was a child, I’ve come up against rules and restrictions that limit my freedom. The moment that I realised I was being treated differently from my brothers was when I was three or four, and I came home from a day out with my family. My three brothers went with my  father to the majlis, a room where he would entertain male visitors. I was not allowed in because I was a girl.  Masculinity in Qatar is tied to freedom: the ability to talk to people, to host and entertain. Even now, my younger brothers speak more fluently than I do and have better social skills, because t...