5 things to know about Qatar, the 2022 World Cup hosts

4. It’s a man’s world 
Qatar has the world’s 
largest
male-to-female ratio, with
men outnumbering women nearly three to one. That
number has 
spiked
since the 1970s, in part because of its
reliance on mostly male migrant workers.
That gender disparity, Qatari laws, and local conservative
customs create an environment where discrimination and
violence against women has become all too common,
according to rights groups. Women must have men’s

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permission to do things like marry or travel abroad, and
in a 2021 
report
, Human Rights Watch said those male
guardianship policies violate both local and international
law.
But oppression isn’t the only reality for Qatari women,
who have made gains in education, pushed forward civil
rights, and will now participate in the country’s political
process
. This year, women referees will 
officiate
in the
World Cup for the first time ever.
5. Its wealth goes back to ancient
times 
Today, Qatar is known for its money—it’s one of the
world’s wealthiest nations, with an 
estimated GDP
 of
$179.6 billion in 2021. That opulence will be on full
display at Qatar’s newly constructed and renovated
stadiums—one of which was designed as a temporary
facility to be dismantled and reused in other forms. All
told, the structures had a 
reported
price tag of $5 to $10
billion, and the 2022 World Cup will 
reportedly
cost a
total of $220 billion, dwarfing the past most-expensive
World Cup, Brazil’s $15 billion 2014 tourney.
Known for its modern wealth, with one of the world’s
largest 
oil reserves
and its generous economic

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regulations, the nation’s busy economy thrived in ancient
times, too.
Because of its coastal location on prominent trade routes,
Qatar played a major 
role
 in ancient commerce and was
home to human settlements from the sixth millennium
B.C. Everything from ceramics to pearls were produced
and sold there, fueling prosperity. In the 1970s,
archaeologists conducted 
excavations
 of second
millennium B.C. sites on the Qatari Peninsula, where
they discovered piles of shells from shellfish and snails—
evidence of the production of purple dye (extracted from
the animals’ mucus) prized throughout Europe, the
Middle East, and Asia.
Qatar’s World Cup plans may be modern, but they’ll take
place in a historical context ripe with trade and cultural
blending—qualities that will only continue to grow as
fans around the world turn to Qatar this winter.
PDF's generated at: Sun Dec 11 2022 01:39:24
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Source:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/5-
things-to-know-about-qatar-the-2022-world-cup-hosts