Fayqa Ashkanani

Fayqa Abdullah Ashkanani is Director of Public Relations at the Ministry of Municipality and Chair of the ministry’s Writing, Translation and Publishing Committee.

Born on 21 July 1973 in Freej Al Asmakh, Doha, she moved at the age of six to Al Montazah and Rawdat Al Khail, where she lived for almost forty years. She later settled in Al Gharrafa in Al Rayyan with her mother. The seventh of eight children, she grew up in a traditional family whose parents treated education as a lasting source of security.

That upbringing produced an independent and decisive character. She learnt to state her views clearly, accept responsibility and treat each new position as an opportunity to acquire knowledge rather than simply a change in title.

She attended Zubaida Primary School, Al-Andalus Preparatory School and Rabaa Secondary School before studying science at Qatar University. She specialised in botany and microbiology and graduated in 1998. Her father had initially preferred teaching, but she persuaded him to accept the scientific path. University life also developed her interest in photography, for which the Photography Society awarded her several prizes.

Her career began in the Agricultural Research Department at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture. She resisted the assumption that a woman in the department should remain behind a desk and worked to demonstrate that field research and institutional responsibility were equally open to her.

She introduced PowerPoint presentations to make the department’s work clearer and more persuasive. With her colleague Salah Khojali, she also launched a small news bulletin that developed into a magazine covering environmental research and news, despite resistance to the visible participation of women.

A one-year appointment as Executive Assistant to the Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization office, under an agreement with the ministry, placed her in meetings held largely at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The experience strengthened her confidence in formal correspondence, coordination and representation.

She then completed a master’s degree in environmental science at Ain Shams University. Her brother accompanied her during the first year, and she commuted between Doha and Cairo. The thesis examined how irrigation with treated water affects plant growth and the accumulation of heavy metals.

On returning, she became Head of Coordination and Follow-up in the office of the Assistant Undersecretary for Agriculture and Fisheries, His Excellency Sheikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser bin Ahmed bin Ali Al Thani. The role brought policy, executive follow-up and direct institutional coordination together.

Expo Zaragoza 2008 in Spain became a decisive test. Three months of preparation involved Qatar’s embassy in Madrid and sponsorship from Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Airways and The Pearl, alongside the detailed work required to present the country at an international event.

A Spanish lorry strike threatened delivery of the pavilion, while ceremonial swords were held at the border. She coordinated a helicopter delivery, found an Arabic interpreter and pursued a late-night intervention that enabled the materials to arrive before nine the following morning. Solving the crisis changed how she understood her own capacity for leadership.

When agriculture moved to the environmental portfolio, she remained at the Ministry of Municipality and was appointed Director of Planning and Quality on the strength of the Expo experience. She unified procedures, forms and inspection methods and introduced a more consistent framework for strategic planning.

The department prepared the ministry’s plan in alignment with the national strategy and Qatar National Vision 2030. Quality work therefore became more than internal administration: it connected daily procedures with national priorities and measurable public outcomes.

Rather than pursue a second master’s degree, she entered a doctoral programme delivered in English through a French institution. Her research examined why government strategic plans in Qatar sometimes fail at the implementation stage. Family support sustained the demanding combination of study and senior work.

At Expo Antalya 2016, she led Qatar’s first participation in an international horticultural exposition. The pavilion’s sand-dune concept presented a recognisable landscape while demonstrating how a country with an arid environment could participate seriously in a global horticultural forum.

The experience helped her lead Qatar’s accession to the international horticultural body and support the invitation to host Expo 2023 Doha. When asked by the minister to prepare the bid, she carried the work from feasibility studies to the models needed for approval.

The approved theme, ‘Green Desert, Better Environment’, was presented through the relevant international process. After His Excellency Dr Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Subaie became minister, responsibility for the project was transferred to the officials charged with delivering it.

She also worked on Qatar’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai. Under the theme ‘The Future Is Now’, the pavilion was prepared in two months and brought together innovation, sustainability and culture within a single national presentation.

In April 2022, she became Director of Public Relations at the Ministry of Municipality. She assembled a team that included new graduates and built working relationships across the ministry’s sectors and municipalities, with state bodies and with the Government Communications Office.

Moving into a department that had to be developed almost from the ground up brought a different kind of challenge. She applied the planning, coordination and international-event experience accumulated over earlier roles to establish procedures, define responsibilities and create a coherent public voice for the ministry.