Self-styled ‘liberal autocracies’ have largely fallen out of fashion. Not so in Qatar, where the governing Al-Thani family continue to dress from an outdated political wardrobe, directing the desert nation as an unelected monarchy.
No-one was surprised when inaugural national elections were postponed in 2019. Democracy has been delayed on two separate occasions (2013 and 2016) since Qataris voted overwhelmingly in 2003 to set up an accountable parliamentary system.
The monarchy, currently fronted by 39-year-old Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, regards its near 50-year reign as a benevolent supremacy. Education City, in Doha, is seen as the jewel in the crown: Qatar invests more than $400 million each year to host the campuses of several renowned US universities.
Then there is universal free healthcare. It extends to non-nationals, a privilege North American expats don’t take for granted. Dizzying gas export revenues mean people do not have to pay any formal tax.
But without the accountability of elections, freedoms will always be precarious. A ‘social contract’ exists with the ruling class. Access to the benefits of subsidies is conditional on tolerance of national policies that individuals have no say over.
Some are more equal than others. The criminalization of LGBTQ identity is well known. Less documented is the state’s covert racial discrimination, encountered by residents that have lived in Qatar for generations. Lecturers in the Middle Eastern studies department of Hamad Bin Khalifa University say expanding the notion of what it means to be Qatari is the ‘biggest issue’ here now.
Take workers employed by the state-owned taxi network who are predominantly of South Asian heritage. When tourist numbers collapsed following a blockade imposed by neighbouring Arab states two years ago, drivers say a sudden rule change forced daily fares up by 400 per cent before commissions could be claimed. This racialized stealth taxation hit hard. As one victim of the policy said: ‘The economy is bad for us, no matter what the figures say.’
Sheikh Tamim declared that people represent ‘our most important asset’ in his first speech as Emir in 2013. But the government has done little to help families wrenched apart by the blockade’s extended travel bans.
Qatar is also the only Gulf state still prosecuting ‘female flyers’ – those women under 25 who leave the country without the consent of a male relative. Sara, an 18-year-old student who did not wish to have her full name published, complains to New Internationalist that she would like to ‘experience contrasts abroad’ but lacks authorization to do so.
Aisha al-Naama, a law graduate, defends the status quo. ‘I want progress. But there has to be a common [family] consensus because we’re not an individualistic society, we’re more group-based,’ she says.
If there were elections, both Sara and Aisha could have a say over divisive issues like these. But if democracy ever does come to Qatar it’s unlikely to be evenly spread. The al-Thanis have mooted enfranchising only those whose families have lived in Qatar since the 1920s, estimated to be around 10 per cent of the population.
