Fourteen-year-old jockey Kadija Abdul Wahed has become the first Qatari woman to take part in the horse-racing competition at the Racing and Equestrian club in Doha.  A class-nine student, she competed with six men in the seven-horse race field, opening the doors for other women to follow.

"My love for horses began as a six-year-old. Since then I have been participating in show jumping and endurance championships. After riding here today, I am confident of doing well in the coming weeks, if given an opportunity again," said Kadija in The Peninsula, one of Qatar's three English-language newspapers.

"My aim is to be a professional jockey," she added.

'A class-nine student, Kadija competed with six men in the seven-horse race field, opening the doors for other women to follow'


In Qatar, there is a dearth of female Muslim role models and more so in the sporting world. But that is changing, if slowly. Nada Zeidan, Qatar's bid ambassador for 2016 Olympics, set the trend for other women to follow back in 2002.

An archer and the first woman car racer in the Middle East, Zeidan entered her first archery competition in the Busan Asian Games in 2002 but came into the limelight when she participated in a major car rally in 2004.

"It is great to see more Qatari women getting involved in sports," she said in the Gulf Times. "I had to work very hard to get to this point, but it is relatively easier for young ladies now to enter the field and make a name.''

As a woman car-racing pioneer in the Persian Gulf, she foresees changes coming in the near future. "I understand that our culture is dominated by men, where men's decisions reign supreme,'' she said. ''I strongly believe that people's mentality will change. Anything new is always first rejected by people, but no matter how late, it will be accepted if it is good.''

And she added that she had problems to deal with as a Muslim woman discarding her traditional hijab to don sporting clothes. "I faced a lot of problems in the beginning, especially from men, who found it strange to see a woman racing cars. They have made several attempts to frustrate me," she said

Meanwhile, in a major first, women’s cricket in Qatar took a historic step forward as nearly 150 turned out for trials conducted by the Qatar Cricket Association (QCA). Braving wet and cold weather, the hopefuls went through their paces, much to the delight of QCA officials keen to develop women’s cricket.

And vying for a place in the Qatar women’s team were players from age nine to their late 30s - ranging from students to housewives and employed people.

But the main chunk of the players who lined up to have a bowl or to bat were girls from various schools in Qatar hailing mainly from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and even one from the Philippines.

The Qatar Cricket Association women development committee members were upbeat over the overwhelming response to the first-ever camp for women cricket players.

“We will shortlist the girls and form three teams who will train every Saturday under our coaches till the end of April,” said Aruna De Silva, national coach and head of the Women’s Cricket Development Programme at QCA.