‘Invite Them to Your Home’ — Qatari Habits Compete With World Cup Stadiums in Attracting Fans

In order to root for Arab culture and generosity, Qatari citizens took advantage of the 2022 World Cup to present community initiatives targeting foreign fans of the teams participating in the football tournament.

These initiatives were not of a specific template but rather were diverse, kept pace with the global event, and focused on reflecting the local and Arab culture in front of visitors coming to enjoy the exceptional sporting atmosphere.

 

Hospitality

The World Cup, in addition to the impressive organization of its activities by Qatar, showed the ability of Qataris to express their hospitality to the fans and to create a new positive image of the hospitable nature of the Arab people.

Since the start of the football tournament on November 20, 2022, fans from all nationalities of the world have begun to interact with Arab customs and traditions, which contributed to employing Qataris for this event to express Arab hospitality in the World Cup, as it lands for first time in an Arab and Islamic country.

In an unprecedented and remarkable way, the female fans of the Argentine national team went out in the Mushayrib region, the heart of the capital, Doha, on December 8, 2022, wearing the traditional black dress (abaya), which is common in the Arab Gulf region.

The Argentine women cheered their country’s national team on the eve of its match against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

The popular dress, which the Argentine women wore, came within the framework of an initiative by Qatari women to introduce the world’s masses to local and Gulf culture.

One of the participants said: “I am from Argentina, and I wear the abaya after a very beautiful Qatari family invited me to their home, and they gave me this abaya as a local gift. We are very grateful for this, so now we take it as our tradition.”

 

Invite Them to Your Home

The warmest scene for foreign fans was when a Qatari family took the initiative to set up a large tent near one of the tournament stadiums to host fans of the participating teams to watch the matches and to offer them sweets, coffee, water, and dates.

Qatari family members gathered in front of the tent to welcome the fans who flocked to the tent.

“The initiative is the father’s idea to show Arab habits in showing hospitability to guests and introducing Arab and Qatari culture, because this is an  Arab Cup,” a young Qatari said.

“The idea is based on introducing Qatari-Arab food, tea, and coffee. At the same time, we teach them the foundations of customs and traditions,” he pointed out.

In turn, one of the fans from inside the tent said that he came to watch football, but he found a culture, unlike that fake image that is being promoted.

In front of the wide presence of foreign fans who flocked to Qatar, and a large part of them showing interaction and integration with Arab traditions, the Qataris launched an initiative under the hashtag “Invite Them to Your Home,” to contribute to promoting Qatari customs and traditions during the World Cup.

The World Cup 2022 constituted an exceptional opportunity to measure the extent of openness and acceptance of foreign peoples to Arab customs and traditions, away from any negative ideology previously drawn about Arabs in Western societies.

Most of the foreign fans who came to attend the World Cup wore the traditional Arab dress that characterizes the Gulf countries, in addition to the traditional Arab head cover (ghutra and headband).

Indeed, many have equipped what is locally called the Majlis (sitting room for guests) in the Qatari house on an individual initiative, believing in the necessity of contributing to this initiative by hosting fans of all nationalities daily in it.

The first initiators were Qatari citizens, Umm Shalhoub, who hosted 10 fans from Canada in her home, and equipped it fully to highlight the name of Qatar, show their customs and traditions by serving popular meals to guests, and drawing Qatari henna on the hands of Canadian women.

 

To Introduce Heritage

Some Qataris, such as Khaled al-Ajmi, responded to the aforementioned initiative and invited fans to his unconventional Majlis in the al-Thumama area, which includes a large collection of antiques and heritage tools amount to 1,500 artifacts.

Some Qataris have even placed models in their homes that embody old children’s toys, house tools, traditional clothing, water containers, pillows, old boxes for keeping clothes, and a giant picture of the shape of old Qatari houses.

Not only did the Qataris invite foreign guests to their homes, but they also took them on recreational outings and horseback riding experiences.

Hundreds of videos spread from inside the Qatari homes, embracing foreign fans and showing them eating the famous popular food (Kabsa and Mandi).

These fans seemed in perfect harmony to get to know a new culture and dive into its details since many of them are visiting the Arab region for the first time.

A Qatari citizen also took advantage of the arrival of a couple from Mexico, who chose to visit Qatar to spend their honeymoon during the World Cup.

He hosted them, dressed them in the official Gulf dress, and informed them of the popular heritage in the State of Qatar, while the wife wore the hijab.

The World Cup provided opportunities for fans to get acquainted with the open Arab sitting rooms and their hospitality, which constitute a heritage and Arab custom that spreads, especially in the Arab Gulf countries.

These sitting rooms were equipped with display screens by their Qatari owners, which made foreign fans flock to them from all nationalities, converging in one house as if they were a multi-ethnic family.

The initiative to distribute dates around the stadiums was also one of the initiatives that Qatari citizens focused on in this tournament.

 

Ethics Ambassadors

Since the arrival of delegations of foreign fans to Doha, Qataris have been keen to spread their children in the streets, metro stations, and the airport to distribute roses to the arrivals as a token of love for the rest of the peoples.

The Qatari generosity excited all the foreign fans, shown, for example, when a visitor from the Sultanate of Oman asked Qataris jokingly: “Are you this kind? Or is this only for the sake of the World Cup? Did you receive orders from the state to do so?”

“We didn’t get any orders from anyone,” a Qatari man replied.

The Omani man replied to him by saying: “I thank you. This is a debt that we will return to you when you come to the Sultanate.”

The same spokesman revealed that some Qatari shops refuse to take money from some fans.

Since countries tend to show their heritage, customs, traditions, and clothes, Qatar has focused a lot on highlighting the Arab culture and floating it in this global celebration, and showing the authentic Arab heritage in all the World Cup activities.

In this context, the Qatari, Nabil Abdullah al-Shaybah, the owner of an initiative that provides drinks, fruits, and sweets to the masses leaving the al-Thumama stadium near his home, said: “These small actions will have an echo later.”

Al-Shaybah added, during a press statement on December 3, 2022: “When this fan returns to his country, he will be an ambassador for us and our morals in his country, and he will tell his friends and relatives how he was treated in the Middle East.”

“We as Muslims first and as Arabs second, because this is one of our customs, and it is a lesson for our children so that they inherit it in the future,” he continued.

Paradoxically, the Qatari generosity touched those who watched the details of the football World Cup and its distinctive atmosphere via TV channels, even describing them as ethics ambassadors.

This was evident in tweets and posts on social media platforms, which praised the Qatari generosity with guests of all races.

Tweeter Tarek ben Toumi wrote: “No one will be able to compete with Qatar. Generous people and a country determined enough to make this World Cup legendary. It is the magic of the East. The East that produced One Thousand and One Nights from magic, but in Qatar it is a living reality.”

As for Muayyad Suboh, he tweeted, “By God, they are classy people, with great morals and beautiful customs. The pinnacle of success is when the efforts of the state, the organizers, and the people come together to make the World Cup Qatar 2022 a success. Greetings to the people of Qatar.”