On the day of graduation from TAMUQ, I found out that I am pregnant with my first baby. Two months later, I was asked to start my role as a petroleum engineer, and with my pregnancy growing, I knew that I would face some challenges in my professional life. I was sure of this because it is one of the expectations that some people have from married women, and from women in general, and as a woman, I made it my responsibility to prove the opposite.

We used to have 40 calendar maternity leave days, and I added 10 days from my allowed leave days when I gave birth. So, 50 days after giving birth, I resumed and started work on a site that required one hour of driving and another hour coming back home. I used to leave my baby with my mother around 5 in the morning and take the one-hour drive as a nap for me, as I would be so lucky if I was able to sleep for three hours straight. I would take another nap while coming back home. But once I would be at home, I would dedicate my time to being with my baby. I missed him so much during those times, but I kept myself motivated by thinking that at least I am getting two hours of nap. It was what we call the bitter-sweet. So, I would be away from my baby for at least 9 hours. It’s the extra pressure or effort we do to prove ourselves and fight the implicit biases about us as women.

To date, I remember my first site visit. I was overwhelmed by the huge size of the site and the scale of its components compared to what we imagined them to be when we were studying. After that experience, I and other colleagues reached out to TAMUQ, told them about our experience, and advised them to take the students on-site visits so they can experience how it feels to work on a site. Another thing that I remember is that our presence was something new to all the men working on the sites, which made them uncomfortable as the accommodations at the site were for men only. So, they were a bit worried about how to make us feel comfortable and how to arrange the use of the facilities, like sharing the washroom and how to fit us into the small cabin restaurant where we had our breakfast and lunch. They were so kind in trying to arrange these things and everyone there was collaborating and working together. Alhamdulillah, all of this changed within a few weeks after we raised our concerns, that we, as females, need separate accommodations, and today, all sites are prepared to accommodate women easily.

One of the events that happened to me during work is when one working staff told me: “you are married and have a baby, why would you compete with us on a men’s job? Your place is at home and in the kitchen”. I could have raised this incident to authorities, and he would probably be warned or fired, but I didn’t want to stop his livelihood, but I wanted him to be there to watch what I am capable of. Two years later, in an email received from the executive director regarding a project, I was appointed the leader of that project, and the person who made that previous comment would be one of the members who will be reporting to me. I called him directly and told him: “I am good at the kitchen, but I am the best at meeting my deadlines, so let’s get ready”. Of course, we all work in a collaborative environment, but I commented only to tell him that we all should respect each other. We need to take a stand against the misconceptions spreading that women were not getting promoted because they are not committed, or that they are not good enough, or that that refuse to go to the site. Alhamdulillah, I think I and other engineers were able to encourage a lot of changes in the field and make it more women-friendly. Like any new field, there were challenges that we faced, some of which we raised, and we were able to change. However, there were things that we started seeing as time passed, like the invisible limits that they put for women, a glass ceiling as they call it. This was especially true when it comes to promoting women to leading positions. At that time, I was thinking to continue my education and get a master’s degree, but to study something close to my heart this time, and something within humanities and social sciences. I remember I saw a post about the Master of Arts in Women, Society, and Development, so, I applied and joined Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).

Studying the history of women’s struggles and how some communities managed to grow where others didn’t, made me want to do my master thesis on this topic. The thesis ended with a list of recommendations that might help in closing the gap between men and women. One of those recommendations led, in late 2020, to the inception of  QWEA , the Qatar Women Engineers Association.