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Qatari Voices
Qatari Voices is the first anthology that represents 25 young creative Qatari authors. The anthology reflects concerns and aspirations of the young Qatari generation illustrated in essays and stories. They are intimate glimpses of old reminiscence and longing to the simple past, as well as photos that show concerns of a challenging present and aspirations to the future. They also tackle sensitive issues such as arranged marriages and gender discrimination. "Qatari Voices" is a mirror of reality of the Qatari society from a young generation perspective.
- GenresNonfictionShort Stories
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 13, 2019
This collection had some interesting pieces, even if the tone of some was a little earnest and moralising. The better ones hinted at the concerns about cultural identity and social changes bought about by oil revenue and globalisation- I particularly enjoyed those stories which discussed the marriage process and women’s perceptions of their changing roles in Qatari society. But I felt this collection was frustratingly skimming the surface- something I’ve seen in my readings of Gulf literature. I would have loved more engagement on the inequality suffered by Qatar’s migrant workers, the decline of Gulf Arabic, and tensions over the role of Islam- topics that are hinted at but not further explored. Still, worthwhile reading- my favourite was Hissa Faraj Al Marri’s surprisingly touching ‘Dear Mom.’
July 8, 2019
This barely scratched the surface but there are some interesting history bits on Qatar and it’s tribes. The extreme romanticization of the past irks me and this collection is all about that.
[Around the world pick for Qatar.]
[Around the world pick for Qatar.]
August 10, 2012
I met one of the editors of this anthology on Twitter recently and she sent me a link to check out her book list. All looked interesting but it was Qatari Voices that really caught my eye. This is the sort of non-fiction to which I’m drawn – exploring a new culture and taking myself out of my world. What I did not expect was to find as many commonalities as I did with this grouping of essays.
All are written with varied skill, as one would expect from students, but all are written with heart. The introduction shares the idea of “free writing” with us as allowing the writer’s thoughts to “spill across the page” (location 96). It is exactly with this easy and conversational style that most of the essays are presented.
Many of the essayists share memories of their grandmothers. Women they cherished who worked hard and married young and weren’t afforded the advantages that their grandchildren have. Essayist, Maryam Ahmad Al Subaiey shares with us a memory of a grandmother who left the nomadic lifestyle to settle and is constantly moving and “building and demolishing” (location 196). The image of the grandmother and the affection of the writer for her is vivid. She tells us of the grandmother being called in while playing with her fellow children in the garden as a nine-year-old child to be informed that she was to be married. The retelling is with heart but also the realization that this is how things were.
Another essay that resonated with me was by Mohammed Jabor Al Kubaisi. He tells us of his family leaving the tribal life for jobs in the city. “(in the new town)…there was no sea for fishing, no birds singing and no huge boats for diving to look for pearls…the thing that made the new situation easy to accept was that we were also together.” (Location 248). The beauty of the language with which this essay was written moved me as did the relation to my own story. The essayist and I may come from completely different cultures but I grew up in a town of misplaced southerners who had come north looking for the jobs that were so unavailable in their hometowns.
Another essayist cites the difficult choice she had to make when she discovered that the school she was to attend was co-ed. Do any of us in western culture give a second thought to co-ed classes? Shining through the telling was truly a concern from this young woman of the reputation of her family. Other essayists highlight love of country. One tells us that, “My country is everything to me – like a girlfriend I can never leave.”
These are just a few tastes of what to expect in this delightful anthology of essays. I really enjoyed this look into another culture and seeing the reflection of my own. I highly recommend this anthology not only for my fans but for your children. In a few years, when my daughter is 12 or 13, I’m going to download this book to my daughter’s Kindle. This visit with the people of Qatar is an unexpected and enlightening joy.
All are written with varied skill, as one would expect from students, but all are written with heart. The introduction shares the idea of “free writing” with us as allowing the writer’s thoughts to “spill across the page” (location 96). It is exactly with this easy and conversational style that most of the essays are presented.
Many of the essayists share memories of their grandmothers. Women they cherished who worked hard and married young and weren’t afforded the advantages that their grandchildren have. Essayist, Maryam Ahmad Al Subaiey shares with us a memory of a grandmother who left the nomadic lifestyle to settle and is constantly moving and “building and demolishing” (location 196). The image of the grandmother and the affection of the writer for her is vivid. She tells us of the grandmother being called in while playing with her fellow children in the garden as a nine-year-old child to be informed that she was to be married. The retelling is with heart but also the realization that this is how things were.
Another essay that resonated with me was by Mohammed Jabor Al Kubaisi. He tells us of his family leaving the tribal life for jobs in the city. “(in the new town)…there was no sea for fishing, no birds singing and no huge boats for diving to look for pearls…the thing that made the new situation easy to accept was that we were also together.” (Location 248). The beauty of the language with which this essay was written moved me as did the relation to my own story. The essayist and I may come from completely different cultures but I grew up in a town of misplaced southerners who had come north looking for the jobs that were so unavailable in their hometowns.
Another essayist cites the difficult choice she had to make when she discovered that the school she was to attend was co-ed. Do any of us in western culture give a second thought to co-ed classes? Shining through the telling was truly a concern from this young woman of the reputation of her family. Other essayists highlight love of country. One tells us that, “My country is everything to me – like a girlfriend I can never leave.”
These are just a few tastes of what to expect in this delightful anthology of essays. I really enjoyed this look into another culture and seeing the reflection of my own. I highly recommend this anthology not only for my fans but for your children. In a few years, when my daughter is 12 or 13, I’m going to download this book to my daughter’s Kindle. This visit with the people of Qatar is an unexpected and enlightening joy.
October 28, 2014
Despite living in Qatar for over two years and working with Qatari teenagers, I do not feel like I understand Qataris very well and I certainly have had few interactions with adults. I therefore enjoyed reading this book, and I especially appreciated the essays about family and Qatari history.
It does skirt anything controversial, sensational, or even interesting. The essays seem naive, but honest, and the writers are likable and earnest. It is disappointing that the glaring human rights violations, glib censorship, contradictory laws and rabid materialism that are part of Qatar do not surface meaningfully in these essays. But maybe it is better to establish an identity before you begin to satirize it. And the strength of the book is that it is written by Qataris and reflects their own concerns. There are only a couple hundred thousand Qataris, and reading about their origins it is amazing how far they have come with so few in such a short time.
It does skirt anything controversial, sensational, or even interesting. The essays seem naive, but honest, and the writers are likable and earnest. It is disappointing that the glaring human rights violations, glib censorship, contradictory laws and rabid materialism that are part of Qatar do not surface meaningfully in these essays. But maybe it is better to establish an identity before you begin to satirize it. And the strength of the book is that it is written by Qataris and reflects their own concerns. There are only a couple hundred thousand Qataris, and reading about their origins it is amazing how far they have come with so few in such a short time.
October 25, 2022
This is a collection of essays, some are good some other are not… it is an interesting view of life in Qatar but it is obviously based on the perspective, opinion and even prejudices of the different writers.
February 8, 2011
Qatari Voices is an anthology edited by two people — Carol Henderson and Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar — who organise a writing workshop at a Qatar university, supported by a grant from the US State Department. And this book is essentially a result of that project.
So it is not a book put together by someone who, seeing a vibrant natural growth of Qatari writing, was excited enough to organise an anthology. It is a collection of undergraduate essays written by students who are actually studying engineering, or law, or medicine, or whatever. And I guess there’s no reason why an engineering student shouldn’t have a glittering prose style and a penetrating social insight… but, as it turns out, these ones don’t.
To be fair, whatever the purpose of this book is — which isn’t clear to me — it’s not something they were expecting random people halfway round the world to buy and read for pleasure. It’s not really appropriate to judge it by fierce literary standards.
And it isn’t completely without interest; you do get some sense of the whiplash speed of change in Qatar over the past 60 years, from a poor desert country of fishermen and pearl divers, where girls were expected to get married at about 14, to a fabulously oil-rich nation where women can study to be doctors. But although those changes make Qatar and the other Gulf states one of the most fascinating parts of the world at the moment, these essays do not have the kind of insight necessary to go beyond the obvious.
But it serves as a book from Qatar for the Read The World challenge, so it meets my requirements at least.
So it is not a book put together by someone who, seeing a vibrant natural growth of Qatari writing, was excited enough to organise an anthology. It is a collection of undergraduate essays written by students who are actually studying engineering, or law, or medicine, or whatever. And I guess there’s no reason why an engineering student shouldn’t have a glittering prose style and a penetrating social insight… but, as it turns out, these ones don’t.
To be fair, whatever the purpose of this book is — which isn’t clear to me — it’s not something they were expecting random people halfway round the world to buy and read for pleasure. It’s not really appropriate to judge it by fierce literary standards.
And it isn’t completely without interest; you do get some sense of the whiplash speed of change in Qatar over the past 60 years, from a poor desert country of fishermen and pearl divers, where girls were expected to get married at about 14, to a fabulously oil-rich nation where women can study to be doctors. But although those changes make Qatar and the other Gulf states one of the most fascinating parts of the world at the moment, these essays do not have the kind of insight necessary to go beyond the obvious.
But it serves as a book from Qatar for the Read The World challenge, so it meets my requirements at least.
May 12, 2015
The problem with anthologies is that they can be hard to review. After all there are many different voices in this book.
So, I feel a 3 star rating gives credit to the good essays and acknowledges the bad essays.
It is readily apparent reading this book that the essays were written by students. This weakens the volume.
One of my issues is that not all the essays properly source (some do of course). And some make sweeping claims about the past with no proof. There is a wide range of topics which means the book can come off as unfocused.
Putting that aside it was nice to read so many lady writers in an anthology. I rarely run across books with this many ladies represented. I found this particularly helpful because a lot of my curiosity was about the perspective of women.
So, I feel a 3 star rating gives credit to the good essays and acknowledges the bad essays.
It is readily apparent reading this book that the essays were written by students. This weakens the volume.
One of my issues is that not all the essays properly source (some do of course). And some make sweeping claims about the past with no proof. There is a wide range of topics which means the book can come off as unfocused.
Putting that aside it was nice to read so many lady writers in an anthology. I rarely run across books with this many ladies represented. I found this particularly helpful because a lot of my curiosity was about the perspective of women.
March 28, 2012
The short essays make it a fairly quick and enjoyable read. There is some overlap between essays, but they, together, paint a great picture of what was like for the grandparents of today's young Qataris. It's quite amazing how much life and society has changed so quickly with the discovery of oil. I can only imagine the tug-of-war in the hearts of the people as the elderly mourn the loss of culture and the youth fight for a modern society.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews