BY AZMAT HAROON
DOHA: Extended Qatari families crumbling under the pressure of modernisation, giving way to nuclear families is leading to an erosion of social and moral values in the Qatari community, says a prominent Qatari sociologist.
The impact of the disintegrating primary structure of the Qatari family is being felt on the social institution of marriage as evidenced by the increasing number of divorces in the community, said the sociologist.
This is leaving an increasing number of individuals in nuclear families alienated.
“This (alienation), coupled with increasing wealth, may be forcing many to go to nightclubs,” said the sociologist, who insisted that being a Qatari he didn’t want his name in print due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Some in the community visit nightclubs just to enjoy.
“When you make a commodity available, there will be takers,” he said of the mushrooming nightclubs and bars in Doha.
Doha is trying to position itself as a modern and growing city and the fact that so many global events take place here means that no less than 1,000 visitors come here almost every month for those events.
The country’s population is increasing and people of many nationalities live here now, making Doha a multicultural city. Many Qataris have expatriate friends and they socialise with one another.
“The Qatari society is not isolated. It is part of the global culture.”
People are becoming desensitised and those who visit nightclubs obviously don’t bother about moral and religious values. In the case of GCC countries, of which Qatar is one, the changes have been sudden because of the oil wealth.
“These countries haven’t gone through a gradual process of change.”
However, to believe that nightclubs, bars and discos in Doha are thriving because Qataris who have easy access to money are their patrons would be wrong, said the sociologist.
Expatriates are their biggest customers because Qataris are in a minority, he said.
THE PENINSULA
