As the first country in the Arab world to host the World Cup, Qatar also sees the World Cup as an excellent opportunity to showcase its national strength and unique customs and culture.
From food, clothing, housing and transportation to customs, the island nation of Qatar has inherited the customs of other Persian Gulf neighbors to a certain extent and developed some characteristics of its own. In this article, let's take a step into the life of ordinary Qataris!
1) Mascot La'eeb with the headscarf of Qatari men
Starting from the food, clothing, housing and transportation to talk about the customs and habits of Qataris, it is inevitable to start with the most conspicuous religious and cultural clothing. Compared to the daily black burqa that women hardly distinguish, the headscarves of Qatari men are more subtle.
Similar to other Arab brethren, the headscarf worn by Qatari men in the white robe (Thobe) is also a type of Keffiyeh.
However, because of his close ties with the Palestinian national liberation movement, Kafiye refers specifically to the Palestinian-style headscarf in a narrow sense, which is the familiar black and white checked headscarf that Arafat often wears.
The Qatari characteristic kafiye is often called Gutra, generally white, but some people will choose to wear a red and white check (popular in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other places) style, and wear a black turban ring on the top of the head to fix the turban itself.
(The picture shows the traditional headscarf wearing by Qatari men)
Different Arab countries have different ways of wearing headscarves and headscarves. To some extent, how to wear the headscarf and what style of headscarf to wear indicates the nationality or cultural background of the Arab.
Qatar's only land neighbor, Saudi Arabia, prefers red and white checked headscarves. Newcastle's current Saudi patron Prince Salman often shows people in this form:
In the UAE, headscarves are worn in much more abundance. People prefer the pure white + black turban ring, or directly coil the white turban into a small hat and wear it on the top of the head. Ronaldo's good friend, Prince Hamandan of Dubai, usually chooses not to wear a hijab, or to wear his headscarf like this:
For the Arabs, the meaning of the cloth on their heads seems to go beyond mere religious and cultural meaning.
The mascot of this World Cup, La'eeb, was born out of Qatar's characteristic men's headscarf - the square white turban and the black turban ring are preserved in the animated image, and La'eeb's flexible dynamics also simulate the real shape of the wind blowing through the headscarf.
La'eeb means "skilled player" in Arabic and symbolizes the significance and status of the World Cup as the stage for the world's highest national team.
2) Eagle culture in Qatar
Modern Qataris are often considered to be descendants of nomadic tribes originating from Oman, ancient Najd, and Kuwait, and the overall cultural character is largely inherited from the nomadic Bedouins, while retaining some of the characteristics of East African, Indian and Persian peoples.
Therefore, as an important part of traditional hunting culture, today's Qataris still regard their best hunting partner, the eagle, as an important totemic symbol representing their people.
Qataris have a national fanaticism for eagles. At Falcon Souq, in the heart of Doha's famous landmark, Souq Waqif, we can meet professional falcons tweaking falcons with prices ranging from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.
For Qatar, owning a falcon is not just a symbol of wealth, falconry and falconry hunting is an important social and sporting activity.
In Doha, there are countless falcon-related fairs and hunting competitions every year, and Qataris even drive their cars to the heart of the desert to hold falconry events; Or take a golden falcon to Qatar Airways First Class and go on a large-scale hunt in the endless forests of Belarus.
3) Atypical "countries of immigration"
More interestingly, only about 12% of the small country of Qatar, with a population of less than 3 million, are local Qataris, and the remaining 88% are immigrants who come to work in Qatar.
It can be said that Qatar is a veritable "country of immigrants". Among the 88% of immigrants, labor migrants from South Asia, Southeast Asia and North Africa such as India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Egypt, and the Philippines account for the majority, and they are usually engaged in some manual labor and low-level service industries.
In Qatar, Qataris have only the fourth largest population – and that includes a significant number of "military-for-nationality" people. Most of them originally came from other countries, acquired Qatari citizenship by joining the army, and enjoyed the same high welfare benefits as other Qataris. These high benefits include, but are not limited to, free education and public health care for citizens aged 6-16, free water and electricity, high pension and pension benefits, and even fairly favorable loans and financial subsidies.