Emir shakes sleepy Qatar out of stupor with reforms

In the old downtown bazaar, with its graceful Arabesque arches, there are as many stores selling American T-shirts as there are shops making the white dishdasha robes that are the national dress of Qatari men.

On the capital’s seaside promenade, Qatari women, covered head to toe in black, share the path with western women jogging in shorts or sweatsuits.

Hamad is beginning to change Qatar’s image as the Gulf’s most backward state, gained during the 23-year “do-nothing reign” of his father, who himself took power in a 1972 coup.

The younger Sheik has brought women into his government and lifted Press censorship. He is encouraging western investment and technology and has opened trade relations with Israel.

Now he’s planning to hold the Gulf’s first municipal elections, to be followed in time by the creation of a national assembly.

Nasser Al-Othman, editor of the Qatari newspaper Al-Rayah, praises Hamad’s modernization but says the Emir must be cautious, too.

Some people question the need for municipal elections. “Why not go for electing (a national) advisory council straight away?” Al-Othman said. “But he knows he needs to give people time. You need the people to practice for it.”

Qatar, like other oil-rich Gulf states, is struggling to open up to the modern world while retaining strict Islamic traditions.

It has been easier here because Qataris, though members of the same strict Wahabi sect of Islam that prevails in Saudi Arabia, are more tolerant to foreign ways than some straight-laced neighbors.

Hamad, who was educated partly in England, does not have universal support at home or abroad for his reforms.

Some princes were unhappy when he cut royal family stipends to get money for developing Qatar’s gas reserves, the world’s third largest.