Reflections: Visiting Doha, Qatar

Mary Kathleen (MK) Smith

As an Arab and Islamic Studies major in my undergraduate years, I was eager to spend time in the Arab world. Unrest in the region, coupled with a strict university travel policy meant my study abroad options in the region were limited. Despite having spent most of my coursework studying the Levant, I embarked on a semester abroad in Doha, Qatar as part of a program supported by Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. To make a long, fruitful, and joy-packed story short, I truly enjoyed every moment of my time in Doha. I loved my time in Qatar so much, that I return to Doha every other year to catch up with friends that are now more like family.

Adoration for my time and experiences in Doha translated neatly into me taking a job as Senior Communications Officer with Qatar America Institute for Culture (QAIC) in Washington, D.C. One of my first assignments at QAIC was to prepare orientation materials for two high-level QAIC-led delegations to Doha, Qatar and the surrounding area. The first delegation consisted of a group of five olfactory art experts, while the second delegation consisted of members of QAIC’s Board of Directors from both the U.S. and Qatar.

The Olfactory Art Delegation convened from March 6th to March 10th. Admittedly, in the days leading up to the trip, I had to ask a colleague what ‘olfactory’ even meant. I was pleased to learn it refers to the art of fragrance.

It is difficult to explain to those who have not visited Qatar; there is perhaps no better-smelling country than that of this small, Gulf peninsula country. The delicious smells which seem to linger everywhere from the classroom to the gym (yes, really) are not naturally occurring, but rather manufactured, purchased, and worn with purpose. While a waft of a particular scent can still transport me back to my time in Doha, matters of olfactory are but an anecdote of my experience. To the contrary, this delegation’s entire presence in Qatar was predicated upon their interest in the olfactory arts.

Rather than simply perusing some of Qatar’s many malls and sniffing scent samples at perfume stalls, the delegation educated themselves on every step of the olfactory process. Among the delegation’s highlights was a visit to the Qatar Foundation’s Qur’anic Botanic Garden, where they learned about the religious significance of different plants and their corresponding aromas. The group then learned about how these aromas are captured and concocted into new fragrances. The delegation’s learning experience was not limited to commercial spaces. At the Museum of Islamic Art, Dr. Tara Desjardins pointed out artifacts related to the history of the olfactory arts in various Muslim societies. Moreover, life-long perfume collector, Reem Abu Issa, kindly granted the delegates a private tour of Qatar’s Perfume Museum, which houses Abu Issa’s private collection of more rare and highly-valued perfumes from around the world.

Of course, the trip would not have been complete without the delegates enjoying the final product of all that they had learned, perfume. Under the tutelage of local perfumery experts, delegates visited perfume exhibitions and other expos to learn more about Qatari culture.

Each morning, I prepared posts for social media, promoting what the delegation had done the day prior. As the days passed by, I grew increasingly more excited about the delegates’ experiences. Rather than viewing the country through lenses clouded by stereotypes, the delegates, I realized, were discovering some of the true beauty of Qatar.

The Board of Directors Delegation is one which more closely mirrored my own experiences in Doha. Within the first 48 hours of touching down at HIA, the board of directors visited my old stomping grounds of Education City. The city, in my opinion, was the ideal first stop in their journey to explore Doha, as it highlights the ways in which education, development and cultural preservation are critical priorities to the Qatari government. Just as I attended extracurricular lectures nearly every day in Qatar, all in service of deepening my breadth and depth of knowledge, the directors met with representatives from many parts of Qatari society. Unsurprisingly, they were met with the same gracious and welcoming Qatari hospitality as I was. Similar to how my Qatari friends invited me to their majlis on Thursday nights, the board directors were invited to dine at the table of celebrity Chef Noof.

Be it driven by a desire to understand the entire cultural fabric of Qatar, or even just a singular thread of it, a trip to Doha is always a good idea. There is only so much that can be gleaned from a textbook or news article. To truly understand a culture other than one’s own, they must immerse themselves in it.