Thobes and Abayas

Take a close look at the picture above and notice the range of dress depicted. You might want to click on the picture to see it in full size. In the left half of the picture you will see, from left to right, a Qatari boy, two Qatari women wearing abayas, and two arab men, one wearing a traditional thobe and one not. The abaya is a loose fitting cloak that covers the whole body, and you will see some women cover their face entirely and some don't, although they all wear coverings over their head called a hijab. You might think that wearing a black cloak would be hot in this climate, and you are right, especially since they are fully clothed underneath the cloak.

 The man on the left is a Qatari wearing a thobe, a long white robe similar to a white dress shirt that extends to the feet, and a ghutra which, can be either white or red and white checkered.On top of the ghutra the men wear an igal, or black rope-like coil to hold it in place. Men also wear undergarments including a t-shirt and pants that cover from navel to knees.

Boys may also be seen wearing the traditional thobe exactly like the men, and mothers don't have to worry about grass stains since there isn't any.

Since the Qataris all wear thobes and abayas, you may think clothing is not a status thing, and that follows the Quran's teaching of being modest. What they do, however, is spend big money on bling such as 18 carat gold cufflinks with precious stones, expensive watches, and yes, the ultimate status symbol, expensive cell phones.

On a side note, notice the two other women in the first picture walking away from the camera. The one next to that tall drink of water wearing the skull cap is Rhonda, my friend and my boss, and lagging behind her is Connie, her mother. For non-arabs, it is ok to wear what you want, so long as you don't expose too much between the shoulders and knees.

Doha people come out in droves at night making the driving a bit of a nightmare. Because of the traditional dress being worn, women in particular are very hard to see in the dark, so you have to be careful not to hit them. We kid around that '... the ghosts and ninjas' are out, which is slanderously referring to the thobes and abayas, but reminds us to watch we don't hit one. I think the rule of thumb here is don't hit anyone at or above your status class, the others ... well, as I said before, they are just potential road kill anyways.