Doha Local Custom Tips by travelmad478

The dress code in Qatar for women is quite accepting. Although local Qatari women are usually seen in full-length black abayas when they are out in public, women from other cultures are quite free to wear anything they want. I wouldn't walk around in a tank top and shorts, but reasonably modest, regular Western outfits are completely fine.

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Many Qatari men and those from the Arabian peninsula wear the white robes called thobe, with a white or checked ghutra (scarf). However, Western dress is seen just as often.

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In one of the souks we visited, I was very struck by the presence of several shops that seemed to sell an infinite variety of insulated coffee pots. Or are they water jugs? Who knows. Whatever they are, there's an awful lot of them!

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The entire population of Qatar is just about 600,000, about two-thirds of whom live in Doha. Interestingly, the actual number of Qataris is much smaller--the remainder of the population is made up of a huge contingent of guest workers and expatriates. The guest workers--doing manual labor, service jobs, and so on--tend to come from India and Pakistan, which is why the local English-language newspapers contain a huge volume of stories from those countries. The hordes of expats work in oil and gas companies, the financial industry, and infrastructure development.

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