Amal Abdul Malik

Amal Ahmed Abdul Malik is a media professional, broadcaster, writer, content creator, consultant and trainer who served as Head of Programmes at Jeem TV.

After beginning with a monthly supplement in Al-Raya in 2003, she moved to weekly writing and established the continuing EQAAT column in 2004.

She grew up in a media family. Her father, Dr Ahmed Abdul Malik, was a broadcaster on Qatar Television, and her mother, Aisha Al Tamimi, was a chef and prominent social figure. Her only brother, Mohammed, is almost seven years younger. Her father’s work fed her own interest in media: throughout school she led the morning broadcast, took part in the flag salute, assembly and school magazine, and excelled academically. She especially loved literature, composition and reading. One teacher predicted that she would become a writer. By the time she entered university, she had read many novels by leading Arab authors, often borrowing them from her father’s varied library and reading quietly during the afternoon.

Television studios were familiar from childhood, and at five she presented children’s programming on Qatar Television. During primary school, her parents’ study and diplomatic travel required her to live with her maternal grandparents. Travelling sometimes under the care of cabin crew taught her to manage money, protect her belongings, make decisions and accept responsibility at an early age.

In 1996, while a first-year student of philosophy and psychology at Beirut Arab University’s Alexandria branch, she joined the newly established Al Jazeera news channel. Work in its news and programmes library exposed her to everything the station broadcast. Mohammed Jassim Al-Ali became an early model of leadership through daily contact with the newsroom, careful listening and fair management.

During her second university year, she ended a marriage that had lasted three months because she would not accept violence or exploitation. Court proceedings continued alongside study and work, but she completed her degree without allowing the crisis to determine her professional conduct.

With the launch of Sawt Al Khaleej Radio in 2002, she became a collaborating broadcaster and one of the first Qatari women whose voices reached listeners across the Gulf. Programmes included listener requests, the ‘Top One’ song competition, weekly and Ramadan competitions and special evenings. She also presented artist press conferences at the Doha Song Festival in 2007 and continued to moderate conferences and seminars in Qatar and abroad.

Her newspaper career began in 2003 with the monthly ‘Hadith Al-Banafsaj’ page in Al Raya. A year later, she began the weekly ‘Eqa’at’ column. In 2020, the column moved to Al Sharq, where it continued to address local affairs, young people, society, media and psychology.

In 2005, she moved from Al Jazeera News to Al Jazeera Children’s Channel, later Jeem TV, and specialised in creating content for children. Mahmoud Bou Nab became a significant mentor. Training followed at Al Jazeera Media Institute, the BBC Academy and other organisations, and she completed a diploma in children’s programming at Bournemouth University in 2008.

That same year, she became editor-in-chief of ‘You Decide’, a programme bringing young audiences into discussion with decision-makers and state officials. Episodes were filmed in Qatar, London, Cairo and Dubai while she continued producing children’s television content.

After another marriage ended in 2010, she focused on study and professional development. A master’s degree in media and public relations from the National University in Bahrain followed with distinction and honours in 2014. In the same year, she received the Arab Women’s Media Award and the title of Innovator from the League of Arab States’ White Hands Campaign.

Before Al Rayyan Television launched in 2011, she collaborated with its team as production director for talk programmes that continued on the channel for several years.

From 2012 to 2014, she was seconded to the Children’s Cultural Centre under Her Excellency Dr Hend Al-Muftah. Their team developed cultural and artistic programmes, issued ‘Tajouri’, a monthly children’s newspaper distributed with Al Raya, and launched a mobile library delivering activities to schools and public events while supporting Arabic.

A 2015 secondment to Qatar Media Corporation placed her on the committee developing Qatar Radio. As acting director for a year, she submitted proposals that included the station identity that remained in use at the time documented by the source.

In 2014, the United States Embassy selected her for the International Visitor Leadership Program. A month across several states included meetings with American leaders, visits to television stations and newspapers and a certificate of participation as part of a group of Arab media professionals representing their countries.

Her first short-story collection, ‘Sisters of Myself’, appeared in 2016 through Platinum Book. Launched at the Kuwait International Book Fair and then across the Gulf and Qatar, its fourteen stories explored women’s and girls’ experiences through a blend of memoir and narrative.

Training became another strand of the career. Through the Sky Climbers initiative and cultural and youth centres, she taught radio and television preparation and presentation to participants who included future broadcasters. In 2023, she added coaching qualifications, including three levels of an international practitioner diploma, an International Coaching Federation credential and accredited trainer-development certificates.

From 2016 until the end of 2019, she collaborated as a media adviser to the National Human Rights Committee, developing media and social-communication strategy and forming a network of public supporters. The work included coverage of rights issues during the Gulf crisis and a European Union hearing attended by His Excellency Dr Ali bin Samikh Al-Marri.

Twenty-five years across television, radio and children’s media culminated in responsibility for the Programmes Department at Jeem TV. She supervised varied productions until mid-2022, when she left daily employment to concentrate on media consultancy, training and independent digital work.