Gender and the Night Scene in Qatar

Public partying in Qatar is a subculture of its own. Partying for locals of Doha is only available for males, and even at that it’s very hushed. What I mean by public partying is, for example, going to a concert and/or going to a club. What I mean by subculture is a group of people who form their own culture within the larger culture.

In Doha, males form their own culture for partying by excluding the females. For this post, I did a case study based on Sean Paul’s concert on the 29^th of March, a Friday. My plan originally was to go with two Qatari friends, a male and a female, a Sudanese girl, and an American/Egyptian girl, my sister. When we got there we were all able to get in except the Qatari female. We talked to the security, and they said that Qatari females aren't allowed there. When I asked why, they avoided my question by saying it’s the rules. Both the Qatari male and female left the concert. I decided to ask more about it and figured that Qatari females aren’t allowed to clubs or any place that might serve alcohol. 

When thinking about it, one would figure that this is the norm here because it’s an Arab, religious country. However, this poses the question of why are the males allowed to “party” publicly and the females are not? When I asked a Qatari female about this, she said –rather sarcastically- “People are afraid that girls would drink and do stupid stuff like get themselves pregnant. For guys there’s no evidence, except a bad hangover. It’s culturally accepted for guys although it’s frowned upon.”

I like thinking of myself as feminist, very pro women’s rights. As described in class, the feminism social movements aim at “establishing and defining equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women.” Although, I’m not attempting to discuss the idea of Qatari women consuming alcohol, I’m discussing the fact that they aren't allowed to get into a public space because of alcohol’s presence, something that doesn't hinder a Qatari male’s life. Doesn't seem very equal, does it?

Final Project: The Mother Punchers

This semester we were instructed to observe a subculture in Qatar. The subculture I observed were a group of metal heads; people who have a passion for metal music. The metal heads proved to be a subculture because they stood out and apart from the larger culture in Qatar. Also, they have sets of ideals, beliefs and practices that differ from the dominant culture. The subculture consisted of seven members. However, in the multimedia project I focused on one of the members and his activities. The subculture I studied meet up to “jam” once a week. They’re often seen as deviant by the larger culture so they’ve created a free space to hang out and unwind. I observed, took field notes, attended jamming sessions and interviewed members of the subculture. For my final project I focused on how the subculture resist the culture in Qatar. They resist through playing music, writing songs, dress and alienation. They subculture are aware that some people associate them with being devil worshipers and/or troublemakers. Do to the clash between their way of living and the conservative culture in Qatar the subculture feel shunned out. Although the project took me out of my comfort zone I’m fortunate to have interacted with such a great group of people who have taught me a lot.

Al MuQanaa' - Qatar's Man in the Mask!

In the streets of Doha, I came across Ahmed Mohammad Al Jaber. He is also known in Arabic by his alias, Al Muqanna'. As we grew up in Qatar, the sight of his cars and motorbikes always drew our attention outside of our portable video games, and we'd peek from our cars to take a look at this enigma. During my sophomore year, I filmed a short documentary about him, but for this blog I met up with him and found he was exactly as I had last seen him!

Al MuQanaa' posing with one his motorbikes!

Al MuQanaa’ earned his name after participating in a car race, many years ago in Qatar, wearing a “batman” shaped face mask. Since then he has been known as the “man in the mask.” He spends his days in his Majlis, which was granted to him as a gift from the Emir. In a secret parking, he also keeps his treasured cars, each which he uniquely hand-designed and pampers every day. He has three cars and a few motorbikes.

Al Muqanaa' talking about his cars

Al Muqanaa’ is a perfect example of subculture in Qatar. His creativity has encouraged more people to follow in his footsteps and design cars to entertain pedestrians. “I like that there are other people who appreciate the art of cars,” he said about the people who have taken the initiative to decorate their cars like his.
Everyday at sunset, summer or winter, fall or spring, Al MuQanna takes one of his “rides” out and drives along the popular streets of Doha. He blasts his favorite Iraqi tunes on maximum volume, rolls down the windows and embarks on his journey. Al MuQanaa’ is known for his distinct look, long hair and a fu Manchu mustache. According to Ken Gelder, a subculture is composed to two symbolic subsystems, the plastic form, and the infrastructural form. Al MuQuanna’ has a distinct sense of style and he listens to a certain genre of music. These elements constitute the “plastic” subsystems. Moreover, he has developed a ritual of going out at sunset or any special occasion, such as Eid or National Day to celebrate. “The Emir used to let his children ride in my car when they were kids,” he said. Also, clearly, he is resistant to innovation because he has maintained the exact same style and look for decades.
Al MuQanaa’ belongs to a subset of society, that is distinguished by unique aspects of its clothing, style and "performance practice". Most subcultures have a unique practice of performing their “art.” In the case of Al MuQanna, it is taking his cars to the street and driving around. “Nothing makes me happier than to see the children smiling from their cars, and the people look at me in disbelief, but I know they enjoy it.” Although in many cases, the subcultural performances take place behind closed doors, he takes it out into the public! The purpose of his art is to remind everyone about how Qatar is is safe and welcoming and break barriers between foreigners and locals through entertainment!

2 of his cars in the "secret parking"

New car he plans to decorate soon.

He aimed to remind everyone of how safe and welcoming Qatar is through art! 

Let’s Play the Subculture Game

Souq waqif in Doha, Qatar, is one of the most common places residents go to enjoy traditional food, ranging from Syrian, Italian, Iranian and Lebanese, and to enjoy a good shisha in one of the numerous cafes and restaurants.Souq waqif is a main attraction for tourists because of its “authentic” architecture, souvenir shops and the random stands where people sell handcrafted ornaments or homemade food. The people who work in the stands dress in traditional clothing and focus at the activity they have to engage in.

In front of Damasca, a man dresses in Indian attire sells jewelry, and makes bracelets in front of you if you want a particular design. He is dressed in a specific clothing style and he has particular way of talking, as he knows terms that are specific to the jewelry-making community, but is this man part of a subculture?

In sociology, subculture is defined as a smaller group within the larger society that can be differentiated by some unique aspects of its behavior, such as clothing styles, linguistic usage or beliefs and values. To answer my previous question, no, just because the man dresses and speaks in a different way, does not make him part of a subculture, but he does engage in a performance of some sort. If I were to consider a group of professional jewelry makers in Qatar who have designs that have demonic symbols on them, then that would be a subculture. That would be because they would be going against the parent culture of religion, and because subcultures are always in some way non-conforming or dissenting.

A performance is the execution or accomplishment of work, acts or feats, and it is an action or proceeding of an unusual or spectacular type. The people who work at the different booths at Souq Waqif are all part of a performance, but their actions could be better defined by the concept of dramaturgy. The front stage consists of them selling traditional clothes, food or ornaments and perhaps making them in front of their audience, as they are dressed in traditional clothing and speak about their craft very specifically. Back stage however, there is all their suppliers and business partners who actually equip them with the finished products.

Desi Subculture in EC

The general population of Qatar is mostly comprised of Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and others from the Indian subcontinent, which is about 50% of the total population. Even in Education City, a majority of the student population comes from the Indian subcontinent and commonly referred to as "Desis". A big event that is going to take place in Education City (EC) next week is Desi Night which is an event that showcases the talents of various desi students which includes singing; dancing and stand-up comedy. 

For the Youth Culture in the Middle East course, the class discussed about how interaction plays a huge role in the development of subculture. According to Grazian, culture is conditioned by interaction and the context about which it revolves. We also discussed about using the dramaturgy approach to analyze subcultures. Hence, I noticed that the dramaturgy approach could be used for the Desi Night to examine the desi subculture in Education City. So, I wiil be applying this approach for Desi Night 2011 that took place last year.The five important elements that need to be considered while using the dramaturgy approach are – Actors; setting; roles; audience; front stage and backstage behavior.

Actors – The actors for this particular event included all the desi students of EC. For this particular event, all the EC students who performed the various desi songs and dances were the actors. The facilitators of the event that included the VCUQ student government association can also be grouped as actors. (Not surprisingly, the VCUQ student government association is completely comprised of desi students)

Roles – The roles includes the roles taken up by the various actors for this event. This includes performers who put on the show and facilitators who were in charge of making sure that the event took place smoothly; the MCs who ensured the smooth transition from one performance to next.

                                                                        The main MC   

Setting – The setting for this event was in VCUQ lounge. Every year, it is held there as it can provide space for a large number of people up to 50 students.

Audience – The audience includes all those people who attended the event which includes various students from EC; guest students from universities outside EC and families of the performers.

Front stage and backstage behavior – The front stage behavior includes the performances put n by the actors such a singing, dancing and stand up comedy.

The backstage behavior includes the actions of those facilitators who helped around the event such as taking care of the caterer; helping out the performers in changing costumes; providing materials for the MC for the order of events.

After observing the event through these elements, it becomes obvious that interaction is the link that joins all the elements together that contributes to the Desi subculture in EC. For example, there are a lot of groups that are segregated on the basis of their nationality. However, for this event, people from various countries were involved in dance performances together. This would not have been possible without interaction which includes word of mouth communication Even in the audience, you could see groups of students that would not usually interact outside would interact and comment on performances together.

It is interesting how these events act as platforms of impact on the Desi subculture in EC.

Third Culture Kid

So far, I have noticed that the majority of our blog posts have been very much centralized around consumerism. Although what we eat, what we buy, and how we entertain ourselves are important in the contexts of globalization, glocalization and different subcultures, it is also necessary to examine one of the most important aspects of this cycle of human nature which is, of course, ourselves. I have to admit I did chose to discuss this because I love to talk about myself and am maybe a little egocentric (although not ethnocentric!) but I also think it is important that we examine why different people are attracted to certain subcultures, or how we can relate to others around us in a globalized environment. I myself, as a Third Culture Kid, am a product of globalization and often have issues identifying with certain groups whether it be in terms of religion, nationality, language and accents, or just general social groups. Sometimes I feel sorry for myself when people as me ‘where are you from?’ and I panic as to what to tell them, but on the other hand, it is nice to be able to be somewhat of a nomad when it comes to traveling and experiencing different cultures as I have no real attachment to a specific place and am always eager to adapt to new cultures.

This reminded me of a brief section of our reading, which mentioned supermarkets of style, and shopping for subcultural identities. For me, often traveling and settling in many different places, I end up trying out different groups, fashions and identities until I find some sense of belonging. When I lived in Singapore, I was very active in the middle school cheerleading and dance scene, and yet in Qatar I was more inclined towards socializing with very diverse groups of people, some of whom have pink hair and wear studded jackets.

Some view this bouncing back and forth between countries, cultures and subcultures as an inability to fit in and a sense of being an outcast. Yet I feel my ability to blend in and look at these different subcultures from a more external perspective helps me understand people better in terms of why they do what they do, whether it is due to a deviance and resistance issue, or a conflict of power between different groups.

Skip to 0:55 to avoid the sappy poem - and learn more about the melodramatic lives of these Third Culture Kids

Additionally, something that I always find intriguing is how certain people in Qatar react to my white-ness. I suppose it has something to do with the notion of white privilege, but from my experiences, this has not been a positive thing especially being a girl, I face a combination of racism, sexism, and also being idolized due to my skin color (which is always awkward).

Friends sometimes comment on how lucky I am to be white because my parents aren’t strict, or that I can drink and do whatever I want, but I also get harassed by some people who label me as being ‘a whore because you’re white’ or having police officers and really creepy Lebanese men constantly ask me which part of ‘Amreeka’ I am from.

My favorite comments, which I get a lot of, have to do with my freckles, which aren’t even that obvious. “You have dirt on your face”, “there’s something on your nose”, “do you want something for your sun spots?”, “when did you get that skin disease?” Mostly these comments come from Arabs and East Asians, which amuses me because really - have they never seen a white girl with freckles before? Imagine what will happen if they see a ginger. When this happens, I have to remind myself that not everybody subjects themselves to, or are open to the idea of globalization and different subcultures. I suppose certain areas of Qatar, or places where they are coming from, are not as globalized and full of western expatriates as you would expect.

Youth in Qatar

One of our first readings, “Arab Youth, the Missing Demographic”, which focused on the large number of Arab youth and their identity struggles, complex relationships to media, and high unemployment rates, was something that I can relate to personally due to my involvement in the founding of The Youth Company. Before I explain what this company is, I also think what I am about to discuss relates closely to ideas of globalization and glocalization (customizations to better suit geographic areas) that we have previously discussed as well as hegemony, social construction, consumer cultures and ethnocentrism.

Almost two years ago a group of four friends and I sat down and decided to come up with a project that would shape and re-define the way the Qatari community views its youth. You may be wondering why I didn’t write about something more lighthearted, like the relations between the Arab dessert Umm Ali and British bread and butter pudding, or my thoughts on the “One Of Us” campaign here in Qatar, well it’s because The Youth Company is something that I feel everybody should know about because it genuinely relates to much of what we discuss in class and is something that we, as youth in this region, should be aware of.

We initially formed the company to be a way for youth from around Qatar to get to know each other and share thoughts about many social issues while working to remove any ethnocentric tendencies and foster notions of cultural relativism, however it quickly branched out and became a way for youth to gain different experiences in order to be more successful in the future. I’ll take a step back to explain briefly. In Qatar during high school, and even during university, it is very hard to acquire a part time job or even an internship, in order to gain experience that will help you in finding a job in the future. Unlike in many western countries, where during middle school you can work in a McDonalds or your dad’s car shop, there are limited activities here unless you model, work for Red Bull, or have very good connections or ‘wasta’ (it’s not what you know but who you know). Although this situation is improving each year, it used to be that in order to get the credits to get into a university, unless you were fortunate enough to play on a sports team or debate team, the most experience you were going to get was lax community and service work.

This is where the idea of The Youth Company (TYC) came from, now after two years of being fully functional I can quote our mission:

“Our youth work is informed by a set of beliefs that include a commitment to equal opportunities, and to young people as partners in learning and decision-making. We believe that the needs, abilities, and aspirations of young people should be recognized, understood, and met within a supportive environment, which encourages them to achieve their goals and make real measurable progress. We endeavour to value the whole person and not focus solely on the problems or difficulties that young people may present.”

This relates to our class discussions and readings as at TYC we have worked with Silatech and referenced the Silatech Index for many of our workshops and research conducted to determine how to best reach certain youth groups. As Qatar has such a multicultural and diverse population of youth, it becomes even more complex for the youth to have a say in society and have their voices heard when it comes to our rights. However, certain hegemonic views that ‘youth are just youth’ and the idea that we don’t accomplish much or contribute to society is greatly misinformed by society at large and unfortunately sometimes it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The dominant group, being the rest of society, deems youth as being lazy and unaccomplished and instead of having youth just accept this as their fate, TYC works towards disbanding notions like this.

Due to society viewing youth in certain negative ways, many youth have moved online to social media to create large communities of active media consumers where youth can share thoughts openly without judging based on gender or ethnicity and without being judged by the rest of society. Examples of this can be seen on Facebook with pages and groups such as “What’s Goin on Qatar”, “Teenagers in Qatar”, and “Run The World Festival”. TYC actively participates with many of these groups, functioning mostly online, and is the creator of the Run The World Festival, which aims to bring together many youth sub-cultures in Qatar and allows them to learn from one another. This can be seen in last year’s RTWFestival where dance groups, singers, skateboarders, and different sports players were invited to perform and socialize at an event (side note: not many people even knew of the skater sub-culture in Qatar although it does exist).

Again relating to the reading, there is a 25% unemployment rate amongst Arab youth, and although that number may be lower in terms of Qatar, unemployment among youth is still something we see a lot of here. Despite having all of this American education and Western ways of living, in terms of globalization and glocalization, when it comes to how youth are perceived in society, it is still a very traditional outlook. The older generations have an older sense of looking at things and there are not many things for youth to do so they begin to look at these youth as miscreants – gangs of young people with too much time on their hands, and so starts the infamous “when I was your age” speech. Although I digress, my main point is that due to globalization, we have a mix of so many different cultures in Qatar’s youth population and a unique lifestyle where tradition meets many global concepts and forms of education, making it hard for us to relate to one another and to be heard and recognized in society. Therefore, companies like TYC work to bridge gaps in our youth community and also give different youth experiences that can help them later in life, which in a way can be viewed as social construction of our own youth culture.