00:01Colorful, expressive, meaningful and inspiring.
00:06All around Qatar, you'll find street art like these,
00:10each portraying women beyond beauty and femininity.
00:14But there's one that stands out.
00:16I'm standing in front of a sculpture called Al-Azam,
00:20situated within the grounds of Qatar's Education City.
00:23It symbolises the determination of Qatari women,
00:27arms crossed, walking against the wind,
00:29depicting strength and solidarity.
00:32This month, we celebrate how women are inspiring thought leadership,
00:36bridging cultures and collaboration,
00:38and driving change in society.
00:41I'm Laila Humaira and this is Qatar in Motion.
00:48Did you know that among the GCC countries,
00:52Qatar leads the way with the highest rate of female labour force participation?
00:56In 2023, it was 60%,
00:59compared to the global average of 47.4%.
01:03It's also a 33% increase from 2001.
01:08The GCC has also made strides in appointing women
01:11in the government, ministries, C-suite and leadership roles.
01:16Qatar became the first GCC nation to appoint female judges,
01:21with women making up over 48% of the Supreme Judicial Council's workforce.
01:29Amid the hustle and bustle of Education City is a space of serenity.
01:34This is the Al Mujadila Centre and Mosque for Women.
01:38It opened its doors in early 2024,
01:41aiming to be a platform for learning and discussion.
01:45Vein-cut stone from Turkey and Italy,
01:48marble on the rooftop sourced from Oman,
01:51a massive carpet woven in China using wool from New Zealand,
01:56and a wise vision brought to life by American architects.
02:01Al Mujadila's space is the culmination of a melting pot of ideas and materials,
02:07much like the people, discussions and exchange of knowledge that happens in it.
02:13And I'm here to learn more about what makes this building so special.
02:18Can you introduce us to Al Mujadila for a global audience,
02:22put into context what the Centre aims to do,
02:24and what does the word Al Mujadila mean?
02:27At the heart of the project is really trying to create a space for Muslim women.
02:32And we do that by trying to ask the question of,
02:35how can we approach the needs of Muslim women in a more integrated and holistic way?
02:39There are intellectual, spiritual needs, religious needs, personal needs,
02:43familial needs, professional needs.
02:46Al Mujadila translates into she who discourses, or she who speaks, or dialogues.
02:51It represents a woman asking a question, a woman who's rooted in her faith,
02:56a woman who's identified a social problem,
02:59and a woman who wants to find an answer to that specific challenge within her community.
03:04And at the core of it all, it started with Her Highness Sheikha Moses' vision.
03:08I'm curious to know, how has Her Highness' vision translate into the initiatives
03:13to empower young women, women, future leaders of the world here at Al Mujadila?
03:18Society has gone through such, I would say, drastic changes in the past hundred years.
03:25Modernisation, globalisation, industrial revolutions,
03:29so many changes to how we as individuals actually live.
03:33And in that transformation of society, women have also taken on such a different role.
03:40And so for Her Highness' vision, it's to ensure that we also stop
03:44and make sure that we're taking care of the people who support that society
03:48and who ensure society is continuing, which are the women.
03:51The centre will be marking its second year since it opened its doors to worshippers.
03:56How has this journey been for you?
03:57There's this quote that I always found very powerful, which is,
04:01the meaning of life is to find your gift, and the purpose of life is to give that gift away.
04:06And in many ways, I feel the last two years at Mujadila, that really encapsulates what's happened,
04:13both for me as an individual, also the women that work here and the women that come to Mujadila.
04:18It's become a really open space for women to come, a space of self-discovery,
04:23a space where they are identifying their gifts.
04:25And then beautifully, Mujadila is the place where they can then give those gifts back to community.
04:30And for me, that is a really beautiful thing to witness.
04:34The designers of Al Mujadila made it a space for both spirituality and learning.
04:40The mosque has a library with a capacity of more than 8,000 volumes,
04:44including collections on Islamic history, published work of female scholars, and self-help books.
04:52The award-winning architects Dillis, Cofidio and Renfro wanted to preserve the tradition
04:57of building mosques in harmony with nature,
05:00thus centering the structure around these two olive trees,
05:04which are also symbols of peace, knowledge and continuity.
05:08Right next to it is the main space for worship, a 9,400-square-foot prayer hall.
05:15It has the capacity of hosting 750 worshippers,
05:19and up to twice that number during the holy month of Ramadan.
05:22While Ramadan is the busiest period of the year,
05:26visitors come to pray, deepen their knowledge,
05:29and take part in communal programs all year round.
05:32Every year, the Centre also hosts a Women's Summit,
05:36where scholars, thought leaders, practitioners, and members of the public
05:41gather to discuss contemporary challenges of Muslim women
05:45and find solutions through dialogue.
05:48Through dynamic programming, dialogue, and strategic engagement,
05:52the Centre showcases the breadth and depth of the Islamic tradition
05:56and its enduring relevance to modern challenges.
06:01There is also the RIAYA Young Adult Stewardship Programme,
06:05which is aimed at supporting the personal and professional development of young women.
06:09This programme unites young Muslim women from all around the world.
06:14There were ladies from Malaysia, Indonesia,
06:18there were also from the Philippines, Germany,
06:21and there were also people who came from Gaza.
06:24This programme focused on, for example, climate change,
06:29ways of knowing, assistive technology, which was my favourite
06:32because it showed us how we can use technology to help people who are in need
06:37and in general, like, Muslim values.
06:40There were also lessons that stayed with Almayasa
06:43well after her time in the classroom.
06:46Here we've learned that being a leader isn't just about the title.
06:50It's about our values, how we inspire others to make them have a better self in general.
06:57Two years in, Al Mujadila is already seeing glimpses of the fruits from the seeds it has planted.
07:04The hope is that the Centre will continue to be a sanctuary for women,
07:08a beacon of faith-based dialogue and a limitless pool of ideas and knowledge.
07:17Not far from Al Mujadila is the Qatar Science and Technology Park.
07:21It recently launched an initiative called The 300,
07:24aiming to build a community of women investors to help reshape the venture capital ecosystem.
07:30QSTP is headed by Rama Shikaki, a long-time Silicon Valley native
07:35who has paved the way for many wanting to pursue a career in technology and entrepreneurship.
07:41We did some focus groups to see the sentiment towards investing,
07:46whether women were interested in investing in deep tech and impact,
07:49and the response was a resounding yes.
07:51I think it's a fantastic time because the number of startups that are being attracted to Qatar
07:56or that are growing out of the education ecosystem in Qatar are growing exponentially.
08:03We're starting with women who want to invest at an angel level,
08:06but some of these women have the financial resources to graduate to become venture capital limited partners
08:13and want to be in this community to recruit other women into their work.
08:19That will change the landscape dramatically because once women come in,
08:25who they'll invest in, what they will invest in will be radically different,
08:30and that will create new economies, I think, and new green spaces to invest in.
08:38From faith and education to tech and investing,
08:41we've now come to the National Museum of Qatar to meet Chef Nuf Al-Mari,
08:46founder of the Desert Rose Cafe.
08:49She's blazed a trail for Qatari cuisine, putting the country on the Michelin Guide
08:54and on the map as a culinary destination of the world.
08:58Desert Rose is the second place.
09:00It's not just a thing that we're going to do it and it's all.
09:03I've been thinking, for example, when they come to me a couple of years,
09:06they're sitting with me and they say they've been 30-40 years and they've been 30-40 years.
09:09And this is what I'm trying to do with me a lot.
09:12And this is what I'm trying to do with myself a lot.
09:14I have a big job for the country's work and I've discovered this thing from today's عمري,
09:20it's about 9 years.
09:23And the father's work that's been a long time for my life.
09:25I always wanted to give me a few details for the outside of the room.
09:29It made me a big job that I could discover the results.
09:33I always wanted to go to the hospital,
09:36to check out the results, and to have the results.
09:40When somebody is looking at this,
09:41it has to know that this one is a job that I've seen.
09:44Yo estoy feliz hoy en el desarrollo con la empresa QC Plus
09:48La que veo es la ciencia, es la ciencia, es la ciencia
09:53Por ejemplo, desde la capital, fuera de la capital
09:59Desde Italia, Francia
10:01Y espero que podamos, por ejemplo, a través del equipo
10:05Y a través de nosotros, a través de nosotros
10:08Vamos a llevar el mercado del mundo al mundo
10:10La ciencia es muy fuerte
10:13La ciencia es la ciencia, la ciencia, la ciencia
10:17Yo tengo un libro que se llama Taste of Qatar
10:20Es que tengo un libro que se le pide en todo el mundo
10:22Y todo el mundo, los datos de los datos
10:26Me hacía una ciencia, de mi mamá, de mi mamá
10:30Hay una ciencia, hay una ciencia
10:31Tenemos que enseñar
10:33Hay una ciencia, hay una ciencia
10:36Hay una ciencia, no va a descargar
10:39Es un año después del año. Nosotros debemos tener un intercambio, debemos tener un intercambio en ambos.
10:44Es algo que me gusta mucho. Y siempre lo hago, alhamdulillah, es de la ciudad de Qatar.
10:49Yo hoy soy muy feliz, como una mujer, una mujer, una hermosa, una hermosa, una hermosa, una hermosa, una hermosa,
11:00una hermosa, una hermosa, una hermosa.
11:09Hoy, hoy, tengo una hermosa hermosa, que resuelo a todos los hombres, que me gusta decirles que debes tener un
11:16descanso.
11:17Que todos mis mujeres, tenemos otra hermosa, y nosotros nosotras, de la finalidad, tenemos una hermosa.
11:23Nosotros tenemos una hermosa. Yo siempre, siempre, siempre le digo a las garras, y yo siempre le digo a las
11:28hermosas, que no hay nada conmigo.
11:37Gracias por ver el video.
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