Sports and Qatar's empowered woman narrative

Qatar is a wealthy Arabian Gulf country whose petrodollars have been spent on a series of neoliberal projects intended to boost its economy and enhance its international profile. Integral to Qatar's ambitions is an “empowered woman” narrative that situates female advancement as central to the state's agenda. Qatar has relied heavily on sports to disseminate this motif, integrating it into its national development goals, sending female athletes to high‐profile mega‐sports events, establishing government entities to promote women's sports, building elaborate athletic facilities for sportswomen, and hosting exhibitions devoted to female athletes. Despite these efforts, however, studies find that rates of physical activity among Qatari women remain low due to cultural and institutional barriers. Within the literature, however, we find a striking paradox: Despite readily acknowledging the obstacles that deter female athletic participation, Qatari sportswomen and the mostly Western or Western‐trained scholars who study them are reluctant to characterize Qatari females as lacking agency. Instead, many of these parties echo the government's empowerment motif. This pattern emerges not only in research on female sports in Qatar but also in studies of Qatari women set in other realms. Narratives of empowerment may camouflage bleaker realities for Qatari women but also illustrate the tensions for Western and Western‐trained academics researching gender inequalities in the Middle East.