HH Sheikha Moza welcomes new collection of essays on history of women's role in Gulf

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser attended the launch of a pioneering collection of essays entitled 'Gulf Women' at Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar. The book presents for the first time research that provides a deeper understanding of women’s role in the history of the Gulf and the Arab world.

Her Highness initiated the research for the Gulf Women book in 2006 and wrote the foreword to the book, in which she describes her quest for research to help correct misconceptions about women in the region. "The Arabian Gulf has been viewed not only as an emerging economy but also as an emerging society; a motherland that has given birth to a culture frozen in mediaeval times, peopled by men and women alien to modernity."

In the preface she also comments on her own search to find evidence that could counter common misconceptions: "In my search… I was shocked about how little evidence there was regarding the role of our women in history. At times it appeared that women had been erased from the reconstructed history of our region."

Chapters in the book include the exploration of symbolic representations of the Arabian Peninsula through the discussion of Bedouin women’s poetry and the perspective it offers on women from the region and also the interpretation of song and literature from the Hijaz under Ummayad rule, analyzing how it is reflected through class and gender.

At the launch event, the editor of Gulf Women, Dr. Amira El-Azhary Sonbol, thanked Her Highness for the initiative of researching and producing this book, and alluded to Her Highness's desire to build "alternative narratives" for women in the region.

“Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser... was an inspiration for myself and my colleagues who put the book together,” she said.

The event opened with a welcome from Dean Gerd Nonneman of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar and from Hanouf Al-Buainain, Director of Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. Fellow contributors Dr. Moneera al-Ghadeer and Dr. Amira El-Zein presented excerpts from their respective chapters. The readings were followed by a discussion that touched on how the book’s findings counter stereotypes about women in the region.