Women in business in Qatar
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2022
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How easy is it for a woman to start and run a business in Qatar?
In the past few years, there have been changes to the constitution and laws which have made it easier for women to work and run businesses.
We ask whether that’s filtered down to 'street level' or whether cultural constraints still restrict women.
We visit a project in Doha where Qatari women have set up a business in a cultural centre, and Sheikha Mayes bint Hamad bin Mohamed bin Jabr al-Thani explains the important role women can play in Qatar's economy.
Rothna Begum, senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch explains how things have changed for women in Qatar - and what barriers and challenges still remain.
Presenter and producer: Sam Fenwick
(Image: Women walking through Doha. Credit: Getty)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Sam Fenwick and this is Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:08.0 | Today, we're taking you on a trip to Doha to find out what it's like for a woman to run a business in Qatar. |
| 0:15.3 | One of my brothers actually saw me and he was like, what have you been? And I said, I just came back from work. |
| 0:21.9 | And then he said, you went to work looking like this. And I was like, what have you been? And I said, I just came back from work. And then he said, |
| 0:25.9 | you went to work looking like this. And I was like, what do you mean? I look beautiful. |
| 0:28.9 | And then he said, no, but why you didn't cover your face? |
| 0:34.3 | The government wants to make it easier for women to get ahead in business. Their constitution prohibits discrimination. Qatar has explicitly emphasized the effective participation of women in the country's labor force. |
| 0:42.2 | The government continues to enforce, introduce and expand policies that provide women with freedom and agency to make their own decisions. |
| 0:49.4 | But does that filter down? Or do cultural constraints still limit Qatari women? |
| 0:56.9 | Despite having a population of only 2.8 million, Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world. |
| 1:03.9 | Its wealth comes from oil and gas reserves. |
| 1:07.3 | But the government is seeking to diversify its economy and wants to encourage more women into the |
| 1:12.3 | workforce. |
| 1:13.5 | Katari women are better educated than men and research suggests they're more committed to their |
| 1:18.3 | careers. |
| 1:19.4 | But there's still a lot of discrimination and succeeding as a businesswoman in Qatar is really hard. |
| 1:25.9 | I'll be joined throughout the program today by Rothner Begham, |
| 1:29.0 | a senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. As part of Rothner's research, |
| 1:34.3 | she's looked into discrimination in Qatar and spoke to more than 70 women about their |
| 1:38.9 | experiences of working in the country. So first of all, Rothner, what discrimination do women come up against |
| 1:45.8 | when they're at work? While Qatari women are far more educated than men in their country, |
| 1:51.2 | we find that the unemployment rate for women is double that of men. And that's because women |
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