Badria Hassan

Badria Hassan Abdullah is a veteran broadcaster at Qatar Radio specialising in live social, interactive, literary, national, political and cultural programmes.

Her daughter Fatima died at eleven in 2014 after an eight-year struggle with illness, and her daughter Abrar died at the end of 2022.

Born in Doha, she grew up in a warm and peaceful home with a gentle father, a resourceful mother, three brothers and three sisters; she was the fourth child and had a half-brother. The family was firmly grounded in religion, customs and tradition. From an early age, her mother taught her daughters responsibility and self-reliance by asking them to share the household work and dividing its tasks among them.

At primary school, she set herself the goal of memorising the Qur’an and completed twelve parts with recitation and tajwid. The discipline refined her pronunciation and voice and made the Qur’an a guide in her decisions and conduct. By Year Six, reading and the scent of books had become a second passion, while her clarity of mind and leadership led the family to trust her in important decisions.

Her broadcasting ability emerged during a Sharia lesson, when a teacher asked the class to read aloud. Impressed by her performance, the teacher nominated her for the morning assembly. Daily Qur’anic recitation over the school radio built confidence, attracted praise and accompanied strong academic results and successive awards in Qur’an-memorisation competitions.

At secondary school, she presented programmes combining culture, literature, information and recitation. The microphone became inseparable from her daily life, and those around her increasingly expected broadcasting to become her profession.

She listened intently to Qatar Radio, sometimes carrying a radio to school so that she could follow live programmes between lessons or on the return journey. Broadcasters including Abdul Salam Jadallah, Abdul Aziz Mohammed, Huda Jad, the late Nariman Al-Shorbaji, Dr Elham Badr, Nashat Salaita, Amani Kamel and Mohammed Ali Al-Maliki became informal teachers. Frequent listener contributions widened her linguistic and cultural range, while educator Sheikha Al-Khal, other teachers and friends encouraged her to audition. After secondary school, she went directly to the studios, passed the test and was invited to begin work.

Her arrival coincided with the war to liberate Kuwait. For the first month, she learnt by observing live coverage as a ‘silent broadcaster’. The late Abdul Rahman Al-Maadadi then invited her onto air, where a short patriotic passage introduced a promising new Qatari voice to listeners.

Two years later, she resumed formal study. An interest in law, psychology, broadcasting and aviation could not all be pursued at once, so she chose philosophy and psychology at Beirut Arab University and supplemented the degree with specialist media training. Further courses in English, computing, secretarial practice, management, personal development and counselling gave her a broad professional base.

Decades at Qatar Radio allowed her to address social questions at the heart of Qatari life. She prepared her own programmes and developed a particularly wide audience through ‘My Beloved Homeland, Good Morning’, whose specialist guests and interactive approach reached listeners across Qatar, the Gulf and much of the Arab world.

Her work extended to coverage of the Gulf Radio and Television Festival in Bahrain, a broadcaster-exchange programme in Oman and the presentation of poetry evenings, cultural events, conferences, seminars and award ceremonies. She also designed and delivered courses in audio media, social communication, media relations and interview technique, including training in Salalah on dealing with the media.

Among the conferences she presented was the Arab Women’s Conference in the presence of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. Radio tours across the Gulf and interviews with leading poets for ‘Poets from the Gulf’ strengthened her regional audience and contributed to awards and certificates from Qatar Radio and Gulf and Arab festivals.

She also acted in two radio drama series. Although the work was successful, she chose not to continue as an actor, preferring the media and broadcasting identity in which she felt her abilities were most fully realised. The success of ‘Poets from the Gulf’ later led to her editing ‘Whispers’, a women’s Gulf-poetry page in Al-Watan newspaper.

Professional life was tested by several personal crises. Her father died one week before her university examinations, yet she travelled to sit them because she felt responsible for fulfilling his hopes and completed her second year with a very good result. Field broadcasting brought its own demands, met with the support of family, colleagues and station officials. Early in her marriage, her husband was suddenly admitted to hospital while she was in Vienna, leaving her to manage in a country where those around her spoke neither Arabic nor English.

The most painful challenge was the serious illness of her eldest daughter, Fatima, beginning when the child was six. For years, the family moved between hospitals and appointments in Qatar and the United States. She balanced work and live programmes with hospital care and responsibility for the rest of the household, sustained by faith through an ordeal that later ended in bereavement.

A second daughter, Abrar, also became gravely ill and died. Because Abrar had been both daughter and companion, the loss brought profound grief and a period of withdrawal. Faith in divine decree eventually helped the bereaved mother return to life and work; even at the height of both daughters’ illnesses, she had continued reading bulletins and presenting assigned programmes.

She worked carefully to protect the emotional stability of the household and gave her children time, guidance and care. Her broadcasting passion passed to the next generation: Sarah became a broadcaster, created awareness clips and took part in television interviews and youth-centre activities, while Mohammed was chosen for school radio after teachers recognised his Arabic and public-speaking ability.

Her live and recorded programmes accumulated awards. ‘Social Notification’ received the silver award at the eighth Cairo Radio and Television Festival, while ‘Poets from the Gulf’ earned recognition at the Gulf Radio and Television Festival in Bahrain and in Qatar as the best recorded programme.

‘My Beloved Homeland, Good Morning’ was honoured as the best daily live programme and ‘The Afternoon Meeting’ as the best daily radio programme. Further recognition marked her contribution to the development of radio, the First Arab Forum for Women Volunteers, professional empowerment and active scientific participation in the Third Conference on Women and Social Responsibility in Arab Countries.

Community activity brought certificates for contributing to ‘A Flower Each Spring’, held under the patronage of the consort of His Highness the Amir, and for work with the First Arab Forum for Women Volunteers and the Doha Cultural Festival.

Qatar Charity honoured her support for charitable and humanitarian activity, including a market serving inmates of penal and correctional institutions at the Ministry of Interior. Other certificates came from the Ministry of Health for International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the International Equestrian Federation’s General Assembly, the organising committee of the Fourth Arab Clubs Championship, the Qatar Centre for Future Foresight, the Arab Diwan, the General Authority for Youth and Sports, the Social and Cultural Centre for the Blind, the Department of Culture and Arts and the Qatar Scientific Club.