Lolwa Al-Obaidli

Lolwa Hassan Ahmed Al-Obaidli is a former Head of Community Care at Qatar Red Crescent, a humanitarian practitioner, doctor and entrepreneur.

During the 2017 blockade, she launched the campaign “Blessed Is the Hand That Raised Tamim” in support of Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and Qatar’s national symbols. In 2018, she created Ghanima Café to preserve the distinctive Qatari battoulah and help younger generations distinguish it from the Emirati form.

She grew up in an extended, prosperous family with four sisters and six brothers, in addition to ten half-brothers and two half-sisters. A large house and adjoining farm gave the children a comfortable early life. She read whatever she could find, even newspapers used to wrap Iranian bread, and turned a space beneath the stairs into a private reading place. Science fiction once made her imagine becoming an astronaut—not simply to travel into space, but to discover unfamiliar worlds. She later remained unmarried so that she could devote herself to caring for her blind mother.

Her father initially preferred to have his daughters taught reading, writing and Qur’anic recitation at home. An aunt living in Kuwait persuaded him that girls needed formal education, and the younger daughters followed their elder sisters to school. Civic education strengthened her attachment to Qatar, while service as class leader and repeated first-place results developed an early sense of responsibility.

Women’s professional choices were then largely confined to teaching, with nursing and policing only beginning to open. She chose nursing despite her mother’s initial opposition, supported by a sister who persuaded the family to accept the decision.

In 1980, at no more than fourteen, she travelled with her sister to Ireland to learn English in preparation for nursing study. She lived with an Irish family and was asked to supervise fellow students despite being the youngest. Each morning, she hurried the short distance to her sister’s residence so that her hair could be brushed before her host family noticed that she could not yet do it herself. The experience taught independence, responsibility and tolerance, and she completed it ranked first in her class.

After returning, she completed the Nursing Institute and began work in an operating theatre at Hamad Medical Corporation. A 1987 scholarship then took her to the University of Jordan to specialise in paediatric neurosurgery, where she again graduated first in her cohort.

On her return, the ministry appointed her Vice-President of the Nursing Authority while its president studied abroad. Responsibility for more than 350 women and men of different nationalities sharpened her judgement and decision-making. Competition for the post was intense, but trusted officials and colleagues helped her complete the assignment successfully.

A primary-healthcare scholarship in Thailand took her to Chiang Mai University. Life within a markedly different culture broadened both professional and personal understanding and made her more receptive to beliefs and ways of life unlike her own. Back in Qatar, she supervised school health and primary healthcare nursing and became a World Health Organization-certified trainer of trainers in several specialisations.

During the Gulf War in the 1990s, the arrival of displaced Kuwaitis in Qatar led her to join Qatar Red Crescent as Head of its Health Awareness Committee. She trained families to adapt to displacement, delivered first-aid workshops with Civil Defence and prepared them with basic care skills for their eventual return. Support from His Highness the Father Amir and Sheikha Moza bint Nasser furnished an entire building so that the Kuwaiti families would feel they were in a second home. The experience deepened her commitment to voluntary work, and she continued monthly first-aid sessions through the Red Crescent’s women’s branch for years.

In 1997, she entered South Bank University in London for a master’s degree in health-services management. A research supervisor’s discriminatory treatment led her to challenge a low grade and contact the Qatari Cultural Attaché. She left the university and nearly lost the scholarship, but two days before the registration deadline she was admitted to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, part of the University of London. She completed the degree and returned to her previous post in Qatar.

Voluntary work resumed immediately. With five colleagues, she distributed sacrificial meat and clothing to families and sought a meeting with Sheikha Moza bint Nasser to place the activity under a legal umbrella. The request contributed to the establishment of the Family Development House, later transformed into Social Development.

His Excellency Abdul Rahman Al-Kuwari, the former Minister of Health, asked her to establish and supervise the newly created women’s branch of the Qatar Diabetes Association. Strong results led to her appointment as Executive Director of the association and election as Regional Director for the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Alongside voluntary and charitable responsibilities, she returned to the ministry as Assistant Director of Human Resources. Training under an experienced Canadian specialist preceded her appointment as Director of Human Resources at the Supreme Council of Health. Nursing experience allowed her to assess administrative problems impartially and make decisions grounded in practical care.

A workplace dispute later led to an investigation, and twenty-three years of service were terminated within three days of the report. The decision caused deep distress, but she was subsequently vindicated, received financial compensation, returned to work, was promoted to Head of Human Resources in Primary Health Care and later retired.

Retirement allowed a longstanding interest in commerce to take practical form. Her first venture, Wings Marketing Company, began with an ear accessory advertised as assisting weight loss. She traced the Egyptian manufacturer, bought a large quantity and worked with young delivery drivers to sell the entire stock in a short period.

She then entered commodity brokerage, initially connecting cement producers in several countries with Qatari buyers and becoming known as the ‘Cement Queen’. When fixed prices removed the need for that service, she moved into gold, oil and diesel. Contacts in Russia, Pakistan and India helped her build a network extending from North Africa and Asia to the eastern Mediterranean and Europe.

Capital from brokerage financed Al-Ghanima, named after her mother. The company distributed French-made equipment, accessories, perfume and cosmetics selected from catalogues. After learning that the sales arrangement was considered religiously impermissible, she stopped it and transferred the remaining stock at cost or at a fifty per cent reduction to women who wanted to establish businesses but lacked capital. Several went on to continue in commerce.

A potato snack seen during travel in 2009 inspired another venture. She contacted the regional office in Dubai, obtained the exclusive Qatar agency and assembled a management team in Aspire Zone during the Asian Cup. More than twenty-five flavours and the absence of a direct competitor helped the project succeed; over five years she improved its products and secured a place at Katara after a presentation to officials.

During the 2017 blockade, she launched the campaign ‘Blessed Is the Hand That Raised Tamim’ in support of Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and Qatar’s national symbols. A large mural at her home drew women from across the country despite the August heat. Media coverage and the attendance of prominent figures turned the initiative into a visible expression of solidarity.

In 2018, she created Ghanima Café to preserve the distinctive Qatari battoulah and help younger generations distinguish it from the Emirati form. Designed as a semi-museum of Qatari women’s belongings, the café served traditional dishes in a contemporary style throughout the day. Community interest brought many donated objects, some used in the interior and others in the presentation of food.

Her other enterprises include Al-Ghanima Trading Company, Manarat Centre for Training and Consultancy and the ‘Calculate It Right’ initiative for small-business owners. Across healthcare, humanitarian work and commerce, she placed service to country and community before material return and built projects that combined inherited culture with new forms of practice.