Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BONDING BEADS
Sit in a coffeehouse in Qatar, be present at a business meeting or watch a party of
sheesha
(water pipe used to
smoke tobacco) smokers and you will notice that they are bonded by a common activity: they are twirling a set of
beads between thumb and forefinger, or flicking the entire set of 33, 66 or 99 beads around the wrist. At a party or
wedding, they may even be whirling them overhead like a rattle.
These are not any old beads: they could be pearl or jade; bought in the local souq, or collected bead by bead
and at great cost from around the world. Qataris favour amber beads, however, and a trip to a specialist
misbah
(prayer bead) shop in Souq Waqif will gladden the eye with strands of yellow, gold and treacle-coloured amber.
Men have carried
misbah,
traditionally threaded by women, since the early days of Islam to help in the contem-
plation of God. A user usually rolls each bead while reciting the names or attributes of Allah.
While many continue to use the beads for religious purposes, prayer beads in Qatar have become a social item
and if you really want to be in with the in-crowd, then you'll acquire this necessary accessory. Let them sit in the
pocket ready to be whipped out when the haggling gets tough or, like the 'How are you?' that can be repeated 10
times or more in the course of an evening's engagement, bring them out when a pause threatens conversation. If
you let them function like a piece of intuited discourse, as well as talisman and storyteller, comforter and compan-
ion, you'll find you are holding the ultimate symbol of male bonding.
Multiculturalism
An arriving visitor will be stamped into the country by a Qatari, but thereafter they could
be forgiven for thinking they had stepped into another country - or at least pockets of
many. There are car-hire attendants from Pakistan, shopkeepers from India, nightclub en-
tertainers from the Philippines, and Brits turning pink in the afternoon sun during a day
off from the oil and gas industries. Forming only a quarter of the population of their own
country, Qatari men are recognisable in the multiethnic crowd by their impeccable white
thobe
(floor-length shirt-dress),
gutra
(white headdress) and long, black-tasselled
agal
(head rope); women by their narrow-eyed
yashmak
(veil).
The broadmindedness of an otherwise conservative nation stems not only from interac-
tion with the thousands of immigrant workers who have helped build the country, but also
from the fact that so many Qataris have travelled or studied abroad. Alas, that broad-
mindedness doesn't always translate into fair treatment of the immigrant population, many
of whom continue to be treated as second-class citizens.
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Arts
Although the rapid modernisation of Qatar has encouraged a certain Westernisation of cul-
ture, some distinctive elements of traditional cultural expression remain, particularly in
terms of music and dance, as evident during Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr or social occa-
