Beyond Boundaries and the Karak Culture

When I have to write something I usually take a drive down in my car to some coffee shop in Qatar. I keep a notepad in my car so that I can jot down points on my way to the café and then develop those ideas later on. I did the same last night, after a long nap till 9 pm, in order to brainstorm ideas for an active blog post. One of the first things I asked myself was, “Dona what do you do everyday on a regular basis in Qatar? What is that one thing you missed on your trip last time outside Qatar?” What I missed the most was, going to Bandar, the “tea – port” of Qatar” (Facebook page link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bandar-Doha-Qatar/110456542339707)

I could write pages on how much I missed the idea of all my friends driving up in their Cruisers, and me in my Chevrolet Aveo forming a large circle in front of the Bandar seaside. Each of us would have a Karak in our hands. Karak is a traditional sweet-tea brewed in teapots. For us, this is pastime. We do occasionally go to the City Centre or Villagio malls for a movie or to some hookah lounges for a time of Sheesha or a card game, but Bandar is where we meet, every single day after each of us get done with our work shifts or college. This is how we socialize. I like to call this the “Karak culture.” In my recent readings from Mix it up: Popular Culture Mass Media and Society, author David Grazian writes about how a culture is not the product of a solidarity person, rather a product of collective activity generated by interlocking networks of culture creators. Within his study of sociology, there are  four significant criteria that define culture: 1) the culture must be “well-liked” by the masses, 2) easily recognized and widely used, 3) It must be a mass culture intended for general consumption and lastly, 4) It must relate to folk expression. The “Karak culture” conforms to all four of these criteria, as it is a well liked, an easily recognized mass culture that relates to folk expression.

Hanging out in the streets of Chicago, where I did my residency two weeks ago, I lived through a different pastime. As a Chicagoan for three months, friends took me to several museums, a Cubs game at Wrigley Field or to Second City for an evening of laughing. I would sometimes wander around Macy's on State Street, spend a few bucks on some Frango Mints or walk leisurely along North Michigan Avenue (called "The Magnificent Mile") looking at the people and the fancy shops. This post is not about the difference in pastime cultures between two cities. Rather, about the sanctions I receive regularly from different people based on my lifestyle in Qatar. Sanction is a kind of control that the society holds steadfast in the minds of the people living within the community. To act differently means to receive negative sanctions from the people who adhere to the norms in the society.


I have been stopped several times on my road trips with my friends because I’m a female and I have male friends. I would be sitting on a brick wall, across the sea in Bandar, with a Karak in my hands, and a Fazaa (cop car) would drive by. He would reverse back and ask for my Identification Card. “Do you know what time it is?” a cop would ask. “1 a.m.?” I would mutter something like that. “Who are these people? You should go home and sleep,” he would say. “These are friends and I just woke up.” I usually answer. They never take action, because obviously I’m not doing anything wrong and there is no law in this country that states that I cannot hang out with male friends past certain hours of night.
I’m being deviant certainly, straying away from the standard norm of the people in Qatar. A young lady sipping on her tea past mid-night with a bunch of guys is just unacceptable.