Doha: The Katara Cultural Village Foundation on Wednesday hosted a lecture titled “Cultural Development in Qatar and its Impact on Women’s Dress,” delivered by Dr. Aisha Abdullah Al-Misnad.
The lecture explored the evolution of Qatari dress throughout history, highlighting it as a living social testament to the community’s journey and transformations, and an integral component of national identity.
The lecture examined how Qatari dress has maintained its symbolic essence while interacting with surrounding cultural environments, influenced by cultural exchanges with neighbouring civilisations and countries, from Persia and Yemen to the Assyrian civilisation.
The lecturer also shed light on the social and aesthetic dimensions of dress, explaining that clothing was not merely attire, but a cultural language expressing social status, climate, lifestyles, and prevailing values in each historical period.
The lecture also addressed the transformations in fabrics, motifs, and tailoring techniques in light of economic changes and evolving trade and communication patterns between peoples.
Dr. Aisha, who holds a PhD in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester and currently serves as Deputy Director of Special Projects, Art in Embassies, and Academic Relations at Qatar Museums, emphasised that understanding traditional dress is key to understanding collective consciousness.
She stressed that preserving traditional dress does not mean freezing it, but rather documenting and interpreting it through a contemporary lens.
