Aisha Hamam

Aisha Hamam Salim Mubarak is Director of Nursing for Clinical Imaging at Hamad Medical Corporation and Qatar’s first nurse to specialise in paediatrics.

She grew up in a conservative family whose example led her towards nursing. Her father, Hamam, was admired for quiet, rapid and exacting work in construction; she watched him build straight, balanced walls and regarded him as a model of patience and self-reliance. Her mother brought the same care to the home. Time spent looking after a blind grandmother—accompanying her on neighbourhood visits and attending to her needs—strengthened an early instinct to care for others.

She entered Qatar’s Nursing Institute in 1977 and continued in Dublin, qualifying as a registered nurse in Europe. At Crumlin Hospital in Dublin, she completed diplomas in paediatric and neonatal intensive care, paediatric emergency nursing and nursing management. Back in Qatar, she opened the Paediatric Surgery Department at Hamad General Hospital and took responsibility for the unit, becoming the country’s first nurse to specialise in paediatrics.

A management diploma in Jordan prepared her for a major assignment on her return in 1990: converting a health centre on Al Sadd Street into a paediatric emergency department. She oversaw staffing, the division of duties and the entire patient pathway from arrival and treatment to discharge. In 1995, she was promoted to Acting Assistant Director-General of Nursing for paediatric departments. Her first action was to evaluate services and care, with particular concern for children in intensive care who depended on oxygen and could not live or move like other children.

After five years in that responsibility, she became Assistant Director-General of Nursing for paediatric departments. In 1999, she resigned to study for a bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of Calgary, initially at her own expense before Hamad Medical Corporation sponsored her. She later completed a master’s degree in management, quality improvement and leadership in nursing and healthcare through the Royal College.

In 1985, after receiving state approval, she married the Namibian man she had chosen. Her family’s strong opposition led to an estrangement of more than a year, ending only after the birth of her first daughter, Bakhita, brought the family together again.

A second difficult choice followed when her husband decided to settle in Namibia. In 2000, she moved with him so their three daughters could know their father’s family, country and roots. The family spent six years there, while regular visits every school holiday kept her connected to Qatar. Her husband remained her closest friend, and the warmth of his relatives meant that she did not feel alienated.

Unable to remain inactive, she used her knowledge of Islamic law, prayer, purification and Qur’anic recitation to teach Muslim women. She and her daughter opened an Islamic centre, where the daughter taught children Arabic and Islamic studies while she taught women. She also built a mosque in a densely populated area short of places of worship and joined a social activist on village visits that taught women agriculture, self-reliance and ways to prevent HIV/AIDS.