Between now and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, I believe we have enough time to reach a consensus on whether it's all right for women to work as cashiers in our country. While our brothers in Qatar are fully engaged in the process of demonstrating to the world that they embody the principles of tolerance, dialogue, and openness, which they have used as the main points in their application to host the 2022 World Cup in Doha, our Ministry of Labor is engaged in a study to find innovative ways for women to work without being exposed in the workplace to (physical) contact with men! This is despite the fact that this alleged physical contact exists only at the gates of the Labor Ministry where jobless people form endless queues. From now until the World Cup is held in Qatar we have 12 years to find a solution for our sewage problem. So, while our neighbors are very busy constructing football stadiums, hotels, and public transportation systems in preparation for this historic event, we are working on fixing the potholes in our streets and building airports with 21st century standards. Between now and then, we have enough time to perhaps learn that to be loyal to our cultural identity does not necessarily mean we have to hold on to prehistoric forms of education. While our Qatari neighbors continue to speak to the world in foreign languages, as they did in their bid to host the 2022 World Cup, we are still looking for a solution other than cutting off the electricity, in the middle of the heat of summer, to homes whose owners do not pay their bills on time. While the Qataris are busy fulfilling their promise to build environmentally-friendly, air-conditioned and insulated stadiums to guard against extreme summer temperatures, we are adapting ourselves to pollution. By the time of the 2022 World Cup, we may have reached a religious jurisdiction to deal with the teaching and learning of the (infidels') foreign languages. We may have convinced ourselves that to teach English to our young children will strengthen our relations with the world, and not think of it as part of a large Western Zionist plot to corrupt our Muslim Nation. While our Qatari brothers and sisters are busy trying to respond to Sheikha Mawzah Al-Misnad's question (“When? When? When?”) which she repeatedly and emotionally asked while defending Middle East's right to host the World Cup, we are still attempting to rid ourselves of the persistent question which keeps haunting us in all our life's affairs: “Why? Why? Why?!” The Qataris are exactly like us. Their names are like ours, their clothes like ours, their oil like ours, their camels like our camels, their customs and traditions like ours, and their coffee like our coffee. They're like us in everything! But, the real problem is that we, ourselves do not look like us!
