Lauren Booth – Qatar is Affecting People

			So this is my first night back in Qatar after six years. And I've come out of an amazing event
inside this house here Subhan Allah, run by the country Women's Association, and it's for women from
across the world who are here in Qatar, to experience Qatari culture and get to know them.
		

			And I feel a bit emotional, I've come outside to get some air I had because of a really important
conversation I had with an English expat in her 60s, we'll call her Jenny. And I was speaking to
Jenny about her time in Qatar. And she's been here six years with her husband. He's an engineer of
some kind, involved in building the stadiums for the World Cup. And I said, How do you like it,
Jenny? And she said, You know what, we've been here six years. And we don't want to leave. His
contract ends the end of this year. And we're hoping to stay. Because the peace here, and the
security here and the way of life here is the best that we've experienced.
		

			And I said, what, what have you been telling your family about Qatar? She said, Well, we've had as
many of our family over for the World Cup and before as possible, and all of them say they don't
want to go back to Britain. Don't get me wrong. We should want every culture to thrive. Don't we
want a happy world? Do we want other nations to also have safety and security and joy and family
life? That is good and wholesome, and happy and content? Yeah, of course. But that hasn't been the
experience that the media has really wanted to portray and and I got emotional, I'll tell you why.
		

			Because this isn't about Arab culture, what it is in part,
		

			you know, the racism against the Arabs before about the foot, the thoughts and it's still some kind
of terrorist organization wanting to take over the west so wrong. But there's a lot of hurt here.
There's a lot of hurt because the catteries want to reach out with the beautiful jewel that they
have. And the jewel that they have isn't sitting on an oil reserve. It's not although it buys
mashallah, it's about a cola houses like this,
		

			the beauty that the categories have, and that they want to share.
		

			Islam.
		

			That's the root of their contentment. That is the root of the family life that endures here, despite
the fact that 70 years ago, they know their grandparents and great grandparents will walk. Pearl
fisherman, literally this is not an insulting thing to say the Qatari way of life was so simple, but
they want to hold on to it because it's linked to what prayer, family, respect for the mother,
loving and hosting your guests. These are not merely Arab cultures. These are things that our Holy
Quran teaches us and
		

			I think in the West, you should all we shouldn't be ashamed that people who are good at their heart,
don't feel they can share
		

			what they know is a beauty for existence. Because they've been so hurt by the judgmental, hate
filled,
		

			hate filled rhetoric poured upon them time and again. That's it. I'm taking timeout is great fun
going in there. There's about 60 Women
		

			20 categories, 40 women from around the world.
		

			And I just needed to gather my thoughts. So I just needed to gather my thoughts. I asked Jenny, she
said she said Jenny said to me, you know, we're living in a bubble here. It's a bubble. And I said,
Can I ask you a blunt question? In the knowledge that this bubble is built on Islamic ethics? Is it
a bubble that should be spread further than Qatar? And this British woman said yes, it is. Yes it
is.
		

			Oh, workable
		

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