Ramadan in Qatar - Your Experience

HaShMi
My first Ramazan in Doha, really i am missing my home country. I am really not happy whts going on here in Ramazan. Whole the night high speed drive by youth rather prayers, In offices very difficult to access the responsibles.Ramazan is some kind of NOT TO DO ANY THING here.In Ramazan Camps , poors treated as beggers. Qatar is a rich country but sorry to say in many poor Islamic countries you can find real sprit of Islam.Sorry if anyone heart by my words.

i was there in Qatar during last ramadan. One thing i found was ... it was easier with the orange taxis... they were less arrogant. U ask them to leave u at Lulu at 8 in the evening ... they would ( surprise surprise!!)

other than that,the delay in getting things done is phenomenal during fasting month. All i wanted was to get a licence from Q tel to use a bandwidth for a product my company was planning to market. And viola, the head of the concerned department was unavailable throught the month.

And goin thru the lunch hr with no food... that is pathetic too...

but there was one good thing tho, its was like an unofficial vacation for me.

3 cheers to that!

Most of the poster here have summons what i think about ramadhan in Qatar, and i would like to add somehow the maintenance guy in our compound won't be available throughout the month to do some work in our house because of the ramadhan.

I will only experience my 1st Ramadan next year in Qatar...from reading the various posts here on Ramadan, its looks like life virtually comes to a stop there in Ramadan. Why?? Because, one is deprive of food hence less ability to focus?

Like Seacher, I come from a multi cultural country, food is everywhere 24/7?! We still go to work...life goes on. Shops are open normal hours here. But u know, my friends who are non-muslims, they have much respect for other religions. During Ramadan, friends at work, they would apologised if they drink in front of me....non-muslims help out alongside muslims in mosques across Singapore, packing 'porridges' to be distributed for iftar. Food are given out to the poor, money donations are collected (everybody donate)....this is what the spirit of Ramadan is all about....

Now I am thinking, perhaps I should go home at least for the last part of Ramadan and celebrate it back home....when I am there :D....

that they are foreigners in a foreign land. To expect Ramadhan in Qatar to be the same as home, would be oblivious to the fact that they are NOT AT HOME.

Ramadhan should be a new experience for us expatriates, where things goes to a standstill during the day, but bustling during the night.

and thats where we get to experience the new culture and atmosphere...

I was merely sharing what we in Asia experience during the mth of Ramadan...it would be the 1st for me to experience it in middle east. I have heard abt the night bazaar :) anyway, enuf said...wait till I am there...:P

This is my first Ramadan in Qatar, and I will be definately be taking leave from work for next years Ramadan! For many of the reasons listed above, including traffic, absent staff, absolute boredom, and being made to feel like a lepar if I need to eat, drink or smoke before sunset.

Does anyone know of any places (cafe's, restaurants etc), where you can go to eat, drink coffee and smoke before sunset, without feeling like a criminal?

just think about it..
most of us travel half-way across the world to Qatar to work in an exotic place like Qatar, right?
so why shouldn't we embrace the culture and respect their laws?

yea at times it is VERY painful but that makes it all worthwhile doesn't it?
u get to experience a TOTALLY different culture where pple drive sleeping, accidents go up by 3-fold, nothing is open till 5pm, fast food chains are non existent in daylight..BUT life goes on..

think they should do with more public holidays though!
check out the Emirates! they've got tons more public holidays than Qatar though...

Ramadan?....
1. business close most of the day. food outlet too.
2. staff works half day and off the other half.
3. less traffic during the 'no food' hours.
4. driving behaviour is getting crazy during the mid day.
5. production is down by 50% ???

It's us rude and obnoxious Qatari's that gave you a job for you to earn an income and put food in your mouth. So how about you stop biting the hand that feeds you and start acting grateful for a change. Don't like it? resign and buy that plane ticket back to "exotic" Damascus. Im sure they'll be glad to welcome you back with arms wide open and a big fat paycheck to keep you happy ;-)

Is your name Renee?

I'm not going to explain to you any further because, quite honestly, I don't have the time right now and even if I had time, I couldn'd be bothered.

I'm sorry you didn't undertand what I meant to say, looks like my english is not so good. I just hope you understand that maybe, just maybe, Rene is not biting the "hand that feeds her".

Have a lovely evening.

I don't feel we should think we have to worry about 'biting the hand that feeds us'. It is a two way steet. If things suit us here and we provide a good service to our employers then everyone wins. If we don't like it here we can leave. WE do not owe deference to our employers purely on the basis that they pay our wages. That is ridiculous

Personally, I like it here. I have learned a lot and made friends both with other ex-pats and with Qataris. I have found Qataris to be generally quite charming and friendly and to have a good sense of humour. Although the driving here is appalling and discourteous as well as downright dangerous, over the last two days I have been courteously waved in on a number of ocassions. Each time it was by a Qatari.

Its an old cliche but 'you reap what you sow' And that is as true here as it is anywhere.

Its sad to see that most of you dont like ramadan here, but to change the tone a bit, I love ramadan here than in my home country, it feels more personal here, maybe bcos i am a muslim. ramadan is a month of tolerance and patience, so I really dont see why all non muslims should also go through the pains of deliberate fasting bcos of muslims here.to me it wont make any difference if the eating outlets are open and I feel they should be open, as i know there are many people who depend upon such outlets for their lunch, unfortunately during ramadan they are in a fix, no proper food for lunch which is sad. food is no temptation during amadan if u have your intent on fasting. maybe for smokers, smoking could be a temptation, this fasting smokers will be able to answere better.
what is also sad is laziness at work under the pretext of fasting which is so so wrong, people should understand that fasting does not give you an excuse to work less or take it easy on your work, yet everyone does that.yup people drive crazy during ramadan, no explanation can justify rash driving.
what is bright????????? evenings are longer, you can be out more longer, unlike other times when all shops are closed by 10, ramadan time they are open longer.
has anyone experienced qatari hospitality? no matter who you are,if you are in a fix, and there is a qatari house near you, someone will bring you a huge platter of Iftar, sufficient for atleast 4 people to eat, which speaks a lot of their generosity.I had this oppurtunity when my car met with a tiny accident for no fault of either party,but it was time to break fast, and no guesses, no police would come there atleast for the hour, we were very surprised when a maid from a qatari house came and gave 3 iftar platters each to us.
so there are good, there are bad, we just need to be respectful and tolerant and in time changes will take place.

Han19 it sounds like no one here likes it during Ramadan. And perhaps the locals have been kind to you, but us infidels they've been a pain.