Qatar urges visitors to dress modestly

Doha, NU Online
Preserving modesty in the gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar, a new modesty campaign urging tourists and foreign residents to respect the Islamic values and cover up is due to kick off ahead of Muslims’ fasting month of Ramadan.<>

“If you are in Qatar, you are one of us. Help us preserve Qatar’s culture and values, please dress modestly in public places," reads a leaflet handed out as part of the campaign cited by UK’s The Independent.

Titled "reflect your respect", the modesty campaign will be launched online, making appeals to visitors through Twitter and Instagram.

Besides, leaflets that urge visitors to dress modesty will be distributed accompanied by diagrams of the unaccepted cloths.

Launched by a group of Qatari female activists, the online campaign has been considered as a response to the “cultural invasion” of outsiders’ more revealing clothing.

“[W]e don’t want [our kids] to end up imitating this – we want to preserve our traditions and our values," campaign spokeswoman Umm Abdullah told Doha News.

"[Expats] have their own places where they don’t have to be covered – but we have the right to go to hospitals, to the market, to the malls, to the beach, without seeing these things,” she added.

The campaign's dress code diagram shows that shoulders to the knees should be covered. Women are not allowed to wear short dresses, sleeveless clothing and crop tops.

Shorts and vest tops revealing the chest are banned for men visiting Qatar, the diagram shows.

Under the Qatari law, modest dress code is preserved and "obscene" attire is punished by a fine and up to six-month jail term.

According to Article 57 of the state’s constitution, “[A]biding by public order and morality, observing national traditions and established customs is a duty of all who reside in the State of Qatar or enter its territory.”

The campaign comes days ahead of the start of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.

In Ramadan, adult Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset. The sick and those traveling are exempt from fasting especially if it poses health risks.

Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to be closer to Allah through prayers, self-restraint and good deeds.

Dress Code Initiatives

The "reflect your respect" is not the first initiative to call foreigners to dress in modest attire in the small gulf emirate.

Qatar’s Islamic Culture Centre had launched a similar dress code awareness campaign two years ago.

"The amount of immodest clothing is growing in public places, especially shopping malls. Such foreigner behavior conflicts with our traditions,” Nasser Al Maliki, the centre’s public relations chief, told Gulf News.

"We do not want our kids to be exposed to it or learn from it, and that’s why we will start this campaign.”

Scheduled to be officially launched next June, the campaign has sparked different reactions among social media users since announcing it.

“We should not forget the golden rule: when in Rome, do what the Romans do," Nada Ramadan, an Egyptian expat, told Al Arabiya News.

"We must respect the country’s local customs and beliefs.”

Qatar's modesty campaign followed the footsteps of Dubai where residents launched a campaign in July 2013 to urge visitors to wear decent clothes that respect the Islamic traditions during the holy month of Ramadan.

The launching of the modesty campaign coincides with preparations to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the Middle Eastern country that about 85% of its resident's are foreigners.

Winning the vote in 2010 to host the upcoming world, Qatar has became the first Muslim, Arab and Middle East country to host the World Cup, the world’s greatest sporting event.

In 2012, the Qatar government has banned the sale of alcohol in the Middle Eastern Island.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq