Huda Al Naemi

Huda Moha Al Naemi is Executive Director of Occupational Health and Safety at Hamad Medical Corporation, a medical physicist, writer and cultural figure.

Her cultural memberships included the National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage’s Studies and Research Committee in 2005–2006.

She was born in Al Rayyan into a modest home and a large, conservative family. Third among the children, she had two elder sisters and was followed by two brothers and three sisters.

Her childhood was calm and removed from quarrels and group games. Shy, curious and inclined to solitude, she developed her own rituals and respected elders and the rules of home, street and school. Her peaceful manner never prevented her from defending her rights or refusing to exceed the limits she set for herself.

While other children played together, she dismantled battery-operated toys to discover how they worked, then attempted to rebuild them or saved their internal parts for use in another construction.

Contentment was another early lesson. Affection for parents, siblings, aunts and uncles taught her to see herself as part of a group and shaped a generous character that valued family and gave each person and responsibility its proper place and time.

Her mother was the defining example of persistence and love of knowledge. Literacy classes enabled her to read Al-Sabah newspaper every day, and she continued learning throughout her life. While preparing lunch, she listened to radio specialists—from doctors and mental-health professionals to confectioners and flower arrangers—and passed each new lesson to her children. This second school helped every child excel academically.

Loss arrived early with the deaths of her two elder sisters, leaving an enduring mark. An earlier image had already taught her something of disappearance: the large acacia tree in her primary-school courtyard, whose shade had sheltered her from the noise of break time.

One day, she found that a gardener had cut the tree down and left its branches to wither in the sun. The small refuge that had hidden her from view was gone, and she recognised that her own actions would henceforth be visible to the praise or criticism of others.

What seemed a small incident to others became a severe personal lesson: people and places we love do not always remain ours, and their absence leaves us responsible for meeting life without them.

Choosing between the scientific and literary streams at school was especially difficult. She loved poetry, rhetoric and Arabic literature, including the speeches of Tariq Ziyad and the commentaries on Antara Shaddad.

She also read the novels of Naguib Mahfouz and the stories of Yusuf Idris from the school library. Yet the periodic table and the unseen structure of atoms, electrons, protons and neutrons awakened an equally powerful curiosity. Science ultimately prevailed, and she studied physics at Qatar University.

Her first professional post was in radiology. Teaching was the principal occupation open to many women of her generation, but she did not believe a return to the school classroom would fulfil her scientific ambition.

Leaving Qatar voluntarily for Cairo became a difficult but decisive choice. There she gained a master’s degree in nuclear physics and a doctorate in bioradiation physics, became Qatar’s first medical physicist and founded the Medical Physics Department at Hamad Medical Corporation, which developed internationally competitive scientific standards, quality and services.

The qualifications made her a consultant in the field, while Cairo offered more than formal study. Its meeting of Arab and international cultures and its depth as a living historical museum broadened her human and intellectual experience.

During postgraduate study, she also released her literary imagination. Her first short-story collection appeared in Cairo, where she began writing for the Qatari press. She returned with a doctorate, wide cultural experience and an established name in local journalism.

Professional, scientific and literary work led to several national responsibilities. She lectured at Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar University and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. She became a founding member and board member of the Qatari Arabic Language Association, joined the founding committee of the Qatar Society of Writers and Authors and participated prominently in the National Forum for Qatari Women in 2013.

Eight literary books span short fiction, theatre, criticism and writing for children: ‘Al-Mukhalla’, ‘Female’, ‘Falsehoods’ and ‘Things Like Us’, all short-story collections; ‘An Eye That Sees’, a collection of critical articles; ‘The Golden Spring’, a children’s play; ‘Swaddle’, a children’s magazine story; and ‘When the Palms Grow’, a fictionalised biography. Stories were translated into English, Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Dutch, French and other languages. She continued to publish in Qatari and Arab newspapers, participated for years in the Doha Book Fair and appeared on local television as a writer, academic and radiology researcher engaged in public education.

Cultural responsibilities included membership of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage from 2000 to 2004, its Story and Novel Committee in 2002–03 and its Studies and Research Committee in 2005–06. She served on the board of Al-Jasra Cultural Club from 2003 to 2015, directed the Al-Jasra Girls Forum from its foundation until 2015, headed the culture section of Al-Raya newspaper in 2008–09 and served as editor-in-chief of Al-Hudhud International, the first electronic newspaper in five languages, from 2004.

In academia and health, she became Executive Director of Occupational Health and Safety at Hamad Medical Corporation and Assistant Professor in Radiology Research at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her work included papers in peer-reviewed journals, participation in international conferences and organisation of scientific events in Doha.

In 2022, she published an English-language scientific reference book on medical physics. Further research appeared in international specialist journals, and she contributed to scientific conferences in Qatar, the Gulf, the Arab world and internationally.

Returning home brought resistance to the ambition of a Qatari woman determined to improve established practice. She repeatedly had to negotiate between change and new developments on one side and the privacy, customs and identity of the society to which she remained deeply attached on the other.

For many women of her generation, the greater challenge was to avoid the shocks of rapid change while still responding to time and progress. As the state adopted reforms that removed intellectual and cultural barriers—including permission for women to drive—she applied for a driving licence only months after the change.

Society gradually came to regard change as part of life’s development rather than a direct challenge to custom. Qatar therefore pursued a difficult balance between Islamic values and national identity on one side and successive global changes on the other.

Recognition included the Creative Story Award in Doha in 1998, the Leadership in Creativity Award in Damascus in 2009, the L’Oréal Award for Arab Women in 2012, the State Encouragement Award in Medical Sciences in Doha in 2017 and Hamad Medical Corporation’s Stars of Scientific Excellence Award. She received a gold medal from the Institute of Physics in London in 2019 and was selected as Personality of the Year at the International Book Fair organised by the Qatar Center for Community Development in Doha in 2020.