Shabina Khatri

Shabina S. Khatri is an American journalist freelancing in Doha, Qatar. While in the Gulf, she has reported on Doha’s struggle to transform from a tiny desert peninsula that imports everything (including people – expats comprise more than 80% of the population) into the region’s premier cultural, political and economic hub. You can follow her on Twitter @dohanews and www.shabina.net

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Latest posts by Shabina Khatri

Qatar: Down with Mubarak, residents say

  3 February 2011

Down with Mubarak. That is the popular sentiment in the tiny Gulf Arab country of Qatar, whose residents have been furiously filling the Internet with support for Egyptian protesters, criticisms of Mubarak and statements of pride for Doha-based Al Jazeera for its no-holds-barred reporting of the week's events.

Qatar: Did Doha finally get a Wal Mart?

  19 January 2010

Breaking news out of Qatar - Doha finally gets a Wal Mart! Hopes soared and then crashed in Doha on Monday as news that a Walmart has opened here spread throughout the Tweetosphere.

Qatar: No one is above the law – really?

  13 November 2009

Doha bloggers bemused, incredulous and wistful by official remarks that no one in Qatar is above the law. A debate over the merits of that statement quickly evolves into a discussion on press freedom, as more clamor for a new law press law, free from any imprisonment penalties against journalists.

Qatar: Media Freedom Centre Head Resignation Mourned and Celebrated

After a tumultuous eight months as director-general of the nascent Doha Centre for Media Freedom, Robert Ménard announces his resignation. The centre, which will also lose three department heads, will continue to operate. Bloggers from Qatar weigh in. Doha bloggers, many of whom have been closely watching the DCMF's movements for signs that the region is finally moving toward media freedom, are expressing mixed emotions about this outcome - some, utterly delighted, while others, completely dismayed.