Council members deliberated over how legal reform could contribute to preserving Qatari culture, methods to tackle the cost of living crisis and the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The State of Qatar’s Shura Council (SC) held its regular weekly session at Tamim bin Hamad Hall on Monday.

The speaker of the council, Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanim, began the meeting by extending words of congratulations to Qatar’s Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on the occasion of the start of Ramadan.

He prayed for the holy month to be a time of blessing for the Amir, prosperity for the people of Qatar and security, peace and stability for fellow Arab and Muslim nations observing the fast.

During the meeting, council members deliberated over a proposal to enhance national identity among Qatari students enrolled in private schools.

Council members also discussed the cost of living amid rising rates of inflation as well as the worsening humanitarian crises in Gaza.

Preserving Qatari culture

Ahmad bin Hitmi Al Hitmi, a council member at the SC, delivered a presentation during Monday’s meeting, outlining strategies to promote awareness of Qatar’s Arab and Islamic cultural values among Qatari students in private schools.

Al Hitmi’s suggestions included legislative reform regarding school uniforms. To preserve national identity within private schools, he proposed that Qatari male students be obligated to wear the thobe to school, while the uniform for Qatari students should be in line with the values and customs of Qatari society.

At the end of Al Hitmi’s presentation, the council agreed to submit his recommendations to the government.

Arabic and Qatari culture

Qatar also preserves its culture by preserving its language.

The implementation of Law No. 7, 2019, has ensured that both at a private and institutional level, the Arabic language remains utilised in correspondences, during meetings, in publishing communiques and so on.

The law also stipulates that private international educational institutions must provide provisions for the study of the Arabic language.

In his 2022 opinion piece for Doha News, Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, a Qatari statesman and president of Qatar National Library, argued that Arabic transcends far beyond communication.

“It is our identity, our past that preserves our heritage and the history of our ancestors; it is the language of our faith, without which our religious observance will be incomplete,” he said.

Al Kawari added, “It is our future, without which we lose what sets us apart as a nation and what connects us with our past; and it is our present, without which we cannot be described as a nation.”

Local inflation and the crises in Gaza

During Monday’s meeting, the SC also received a briefing about the council’s Economic and the Financial Affairs Committee’s standpoint on the response of the SC’s General Secretariat to proposals by the council about the current cost of living.

The committee, which is chaired by Mohamed bin Yousef Almana, is actively addressing recent high costs of living, which has been exacerbated by a surge in inflation rates. They are also exploring methods to lessen the financial burdens this places on the citizenry.

In a separate presentation, Al Hitmi discussed the Palestinians’ struggle for liberation as Israel’s bloody war continues with no respite, despite the start of Ramadan.

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that since October 7, the aggressor’s indiscriminate military campaign has killed at least 31,112 Palestinians and injured 72,760 more.

The enclave’s frontline medics are grappling with the immense strain of the humanitarian crises, confronting critical shortages of blood products, medicines, and clean water – among other necessities that the occupier has embargoed.

Majed Al Ansari, Qatar’s spokesman for the foreign ministry, stated during press remarks on Tuesday that the situation between Israel and Hamas is “very complicated,” despite ongoing Qatari-mediated efforts to restore a humanitarian ceasefire.

He added, “We are not near a deal, meaning that we are not seeing both sides converging on language that can resolve the current disagreement over the implementation of a deal,” and so could not offer a concrete timeline of when the bloodshed would come to an end.