The State of Qatar

Land and People
The Qatari peninsula juts 100 miles (161 km) north into the Persian Gulf from Saudi Arabia and is slightly smaller than Connecticut. Much of the country consists of a low, barren plain, covered with sand. To the southeast lies the spectacular Khor al Adaid (“Inland Sea”), an area of rolling sand dunes surrounding an inlet of the Gulf. There are mild winters and very hot, humid summers.
Nearly all Qataris profess Islam. Besides ethnic Arabs, much of the population migrated from various nations to work in the country’s oil industry. Arabic serves as the official language. However, English as well as many other languages are spoken.
Expatriates form the majority of Qatar’s residents. The petrochemical industry has attracted people from all around the world. Most of the expatriates come from South Asia and from non-oil-rich Arab states. Because a large percentage of the expatriates are male, Qatar has a heavily skewed sex ratio, with 1.8528 males per female.[5]
In July 2007, the country had a growing population of approximately 907,229 people[5], of whom approximately 350,000 were believed to be citizens.[8] Of the citizen population, Sunni Muslims form a majority, while the Shi'a Muslims count up to 10-13% of the population. The Wahhabi Muslims form the third group in size, probably no more than 10% of the population, to include the ruling dynasty and a large number of the elite families. The ancient Shia community of Qatar are historically related to the Shia majority in Bahrain and the al-Hasa coastal province of Saudi Arabia, while the Wahhabis arrived from Najd only in the 19th century.

Government
When contrasted with other Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, for instance, Qatar has comparatively liberal laws, but is still not as liberal as some of its neighbours like UAE or Bahrain. Qatar is a civil law jurisdiction. However, Shari'a or Islamic law is applied to aspects of family law, inheritance and certain criminal acts. Women can legally drive in Qatar, whereas they may not in Saudi Arabia and there is a strong emphasis in equality and human rights brought by the HRA.

The country has undergone a period of liberalization and modernisation during the reign of the current Emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who came to power in 1995. Under his rule, Qatar became the first Arab country in the Persian Gulf where women gained the right to vote [16] as well as holding senior positions in government. Also, women can dress mostly as they please in public (although in practice local Qatari women generally don the black abaya). Before the liberalisation, it was taboo for men to wear shorts in public. The laws of Qatar tolerate alcohol to a certain extent. However, public bars and nightclubs in Qatar operate only in expensive hotels and clubs, much like in the UAE, though the number of establishments has yet to equal that of UAE. Non-Muslim expatriates resident in Qatar are eligible to receive liquor permits permitting them to purchase alcohol for personal use through Qatar Distribution Company, the exclusive importer and retailer for alcohol in Qatar. Qatar has further been liberalised due to the 15th Asian Games, but is cautious of becoming too liberal in their law. Overall Qatar has yet to reach the more western laws of UAE or Bahrain, and though plans are being made for more development, the government is cautious.

Economy
Before the discovery of oil, the economy of the Qatari region focused on fishing and pearling. After the introduction of the Japanese cultured pearl onto the world market in the 1920s and 1930s, Qatar's pearling industry faltered. However, the discovery of oil, beginning in the 1940s, completely transformed the state's economy. Now the country has a high standard of living, with many social services offered to its citizens and all the amenities of any modern state.

Qatar’s national income primarily derives from oil and natural gas exports. The country has oil estimated at 15 billion barrels (2.4 km³), while gas reserves in the giant north field (South Pars for Iran) which straddles the border with Iran and are almost as large as the peninsula itself are estimated to be between 800 trillion cubic feet (23,000 km3) to 80 trillion cubic feet (2,300 km3) (1 trillion cubic foot is equivalent to about 80 million barrels (13,000,000 m3) of oil). Qatar is sometimes referred to as the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Qataris’ wealth and standard of living compare well with those of Western European states; Qatar has the highest GDP per capita in the Arab World according to the International Monetary Fund (2006) [4] and the highest GDP per capita in the world according to the CIA (2007),[5] though it was previously the United Arab Emirates that was the wealthiest Arab country according to the University of Pennsylvania (2003).[6] With no income tax, Qatar is also one of the two least-taxed sovereign states in the world (the other is Bahrain).