In 1998, Qatar was a developing nation with a population of just over 600,000 people. The majority of the population lived in urban areas and the economy was largely dependent on oil and gas exports. Despite this, poverty was still widespread and life expectancy at birth was just 73 years old. Education levels were low and health care services were inadequate in many parts of the country. In terms of infrastructure, roads were poor and telecommunications services were limited to urban areas only. Despite these challenges, Qatar had made some progress in recent years by introducing reforms to improve economic growth and reduce poverty levels. This included reforms to the banking sector and foreign investment laws as well as steps to increase access to primary health care services for all citizens. Additionally, since 1971 Qatar had been transitioning from an absolute monarchy towards a more open market-based economy which had been gradually improving living conditions throughout the country. See dentistrymyth for Qatar in the year of 2015.

Yearbook 1998

Qatar. In February, a lawsuit was initiated against more than 100 people suspected of involvement in a coup attempt in 1996. Two people were sentenced to ten years in prison for revealing state secrets in connection with the coup attempt and a third was sentenced to one year.

According to Countryaah, the capital of Qatar is Doha. Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa ath-Thani, announced in May that the country would take a first step towards democracy by establishing a constitution based on Kuwaiti model. A few months later, local elections were announced in February 1999, and in November the emir announced that general parliamentary elections are also planned. However, he did not indicate when.

In 2015, it was revealed that Qatar had paid large sums of bribes to FIFA in 2010 to secure the 2022 World Cup.

• Abbreviationfinder: What does QAT stand for in geography? Here, this 3 letter acronym refers to the country of Qatar.

Sharia is the basis of Qatar legislation. It is especially used in the Family Law, the Criminal Code and the Inheritance Law. Stoning, whipping and the death penalty are common forms of punishment. In family matters, the woman’s account counts only half of the man’s and in many cases not at all. Homosexuality and conversion from Islam are “crimes” punishable by death. The same is adultery when it is between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man. Sexual “misconduct” or alcohol consumption is typically punished by whipping or stoning.

Qatar houses the United States’ largest air base in the Arabian Gulf, the Al Udeid air base with seating for 10,000 soldiers.

Political prisoner and poet Mohammed al-Ajami was released in March 2016 after being pardoned by the emir. In 2012, he was given 15 years in prison for writing and reciting poems that were “offensive to the emir and the state.”

Qatar’s participation in Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen was profitable for the international arms manufacturers. In March 2016, France sold 24 Dassault Rafael fighter jets to Qatar worth $ 7.5 billion. US $ and in September the US sold 36 F-15 fighter jets to the value of approx. 4 billion US $.

Migrant workers make up the majority of the country’s population and are subject to exploitation, abuse and slavery-like conditions. A new migrant law came into force in December 2016, a year after it was enacted. It contained some minor improvements, such as the abolition of the quarantine rule of 2 years after a worker had left Qatar. But at the same time, there were parts that were unchanged under the previous 2009 migrant law it replaced such as forced labor. Under the new law, the worker still had to have a permit from her employer before she could leave Qatar. If a worker was barred from traveling, she could appeal, but no public guidelines for appeal existed. The new law also allowed the employer to prevent the worker from changing jobs for up to a five-year period, and allowed the employer to withhold the worker’s passports which gave them greater control over the worker. In March 2016, the ILO had a delegation in the country to assess its violation of the Convention on Forced Labor and the Convention on Labor Inspection. In particular, there were many criticisms of the work on the infrastructure for the World Cup in Soccer, which Qatar will host in 2022.