Lauren Booth – Qatar is Affecting People
AI: Summary ©
A woman from Qatar, named Jenny, talks about her experience visiting a house and the culture she is experiencing in Qatar. She talks about her experiences with an English expat and her desire to stay in Qatar despite her husband's departure from Britain. She also talks about the racism faced by the Qth identifying herself as an American and the importance of Islam in her family's lives.
AI: Summary ©
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,
SubhanAllah, run by the Qatari 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.
Now 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 at 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 don't 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 well it is in part you
know the racism against the Arabs thought about
the certain thoughts that 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 Qataris 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 houses like
this the beauty that the Qataris have and
that they want to share is 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 were what
pearl fishermen 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 are holy Quran
teaches us and I think in the West
you should all we should be ashamed that
people who are good at their hearts 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 so
that's it I'm taking time out it's great
fun going in there there's about 60 women
20 Qataris 40 women from around the world
and I just needed to gather my thoughts
I 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