Moza Almalki

Moza Abdullah Almalki is a Qatari psychotherapist and writer, and the first Qatari woman to establish a psychological training and rehabilitation centre in Qatar.

In later years, declining health led her to reduce travel and spend more time with family, although international invitations continued, including an invitation as guest of honour at the 2021 World Professional Boxing Championship in Russia for men and women.

A weakness in a heart valve affected her from childhood and required treatment in London each summer at state expense. Her father’s special concern made her a cherished child, but she used the attention to pursue learning rather than avoid responsibility. Regular travel also strengthened her English and widened her early experience of the world.

She later earned a doctorate in psychological counselling from Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland, and began a practice in psychotherapy that extended for nearly four decades. She became the first Qatari woman to establish a centre for psychological training and rehabilitation in Qatar. Her regional and international responsibilities included President of the World Federation for Mental Health in the Arab Gulf region, Chair of the Childhood Committee of the Regional Council for Mental Health in the Eastern Mediterranean and Vice-President of the General Islamic Association for Mental Health.

After working as an assistant professor at Qatar University, she resigned to devote herself to the Moza Al-Malki Center for International Rehabilitation and Training and to writing. Her books addressed psychological problems, women’s lives and children’s behaviour, carrying professional experience beyond the consulting room.

Publications included ‘Psychological and Emotional Crises: Problems and Solutions’ in 1995; ‘Children without Problems, Flowers without Thorns’ and research on behavioural problems observed in the psychiatric clinic in 1997; ‘The Scent of Feelings’; and ‘My Journey with Psychotherapy’ in 2001. In 2005, she published research on the application of counselling skills with Qatar’s National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage and joined literature with clinical practice in ‘Storytelling and Psychotherapy’.

Her later work included ‘Gulf Girls and Their Emotional Problems’ in 2006 and ‘Young Men Have Their Own Problems’ in 2007. She also wrote in English, publishing ‘The Smell of Sensations’ in 2009 and ‘Astonishment: The Alphabet of Creativity’ in 2011. Clinical encounters informed ‘The Fire Lover: Stories from Real Life’ in 2013 and ‘Why Do They Commit Suicide?’ In 2019.

Recognition accompanied the writing and clinical work. She was named an ideal woman in Qatari society in 1997, became the first woman in the Gulf Cooperation Council states to stand as a candidate in municipal elections in 1999, and joined the collective nomination of 1,000 women for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize led by Swiss parliamentarian Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold. She received the title Ambassador for Peace in 2008. In 2014, ‘Rising Women Writers’ brought together work by young women she had trained and appeared in Arabic and English.

Illness and the pity it sometimes attracted became a challenge she answered through achievement. Public visibility created a further challenge. Her television appearances, travel and decision not to wear the hijab before she was personally convinced drew harsh criticism. She refused to let social approval dictate a private religious choice and later adopted it from conviction.

She gave her three sons and two daughters the same freedom to choose their fields, while guiding them towards strong schools and maintaining Arabic at home through qualified tutors. One son became an engineer; her eldest son married and had three children who lived in the family home. Her elder daughter worked at the Ministry of Culture and her younger daughter at Qatar Foundation. She was also recognised as an exemplary mother in Qatari society. Although her marriage ended after twenty-five years, she continued to acknowledge her former husband’s contribution to her success, and their relationship became one of friendship and respect.

A volunteer experience with a severely depressed foreign patient altered her view of clinical responsibility. The man had lost his job after his company closed, carried heavy debts in his home country and felt that his family saw him only as a source of money. He had attempted suicide once before treatment and made a second, fatal attempt while under her care, leaving her a letter of apology. The loss affected her deeply and became the central experience behind ‘Why Do They Commit Suicide?’

Her brother Majed Almalki was another decisive influence: friend, adviser and defender during periods of criticism. He taught her not to lose herself merely to gain society’s approval, and his death meant the loss of both a brother and a source of moral support. In later years, declining health led her to reduce travel and spend more time with family, although international invitations continued, including an invitation as guest of honour at the 2021 World Professional Boxing Championship in Russia for men and women.