Latifa Al-Naimi

Latifa Shaheen Khalifa Al-Naimi is a faculty member at Qatar University, an environmental researcher and Director of the Green Carpet project.

She was born and raised in Old Al Mirqab in a traditional Qatari family with four brothers and three sisters. Home provided culture, affection and encouragement, helping her develop independence, a vivid imagination and the confidence to defend an opinion.

Her primary-school Arabic teacher, Faida Al-Barghouthi, predicted that she would become a writer. The encouragement intensified an already strong appetite for books, including works too complex for her age. Teachers also modelled kindness, discipline and precision, while excellence in English and mathematics strengthened her standing at school. She later drew on their lively teaching methods in her own classrooms.

Neurosurgery was her first ambition, but the specialism was unavailable in Qatar and her family firmly refused study abroad. She therefore chose geology and chemistry, a combination close enough to science and discovery to sustain her curiosity.

At university, she expressed disagreement openly. During one discussion with Dr Saeed Al-Haffar, she opposed land reclamation that buried the sea beneath new construction; he respected the determination with which she defended the position. Other academics also shaped her professional outlook through example as much as formal instruction.

A laboratory accident then changed her discipline. While drawing potassium bicarbonate through a pipette, the substance reached her mouth and caused her tongue to stiffen until the lecturer diluted the chemical. After more than twenty credit hours in chemistry, she moved to marine science and found a field connected directly with sea and land.

She wanted a profession outside conventional expectations and initially rejected a university teaching-assistant post to work in oil exploration. Following a brother and uncle in offshore operations at Qatar Petroleum, she became the first Qatari woman petroleum engineer.

After her engagement in the 1980s, working hours became a point of disagreement with her future husband. She considered refusing marriage, but ultimately changed direction and taught at Al Gharrafa Primary School, Sakina Preparatory School and Arwa Secondary School while registering for postgraduate study.

Her energy and close relationship with pupils were not always welcomed by school management, and persistent difficulty with a headteacher led her to resign from the Ministry of Education. Her husband encouraged a master’s degree in hydrogeology instead.

The qualification led to the Groundwater Section of the Civil Engineering Department at Ashghal. There she observed large quantities of water being wasted and tried to connect Ashghal with agricultural research. She proposed collecting the water in a river-like system capable of supporting land from Qatar’s north to its south. While working, she completed a doctorate in 1994.

Her mother and husband sustained the demands of study and employment. He took leave from work to care for their children during the master’s programme, and she dedicated both master’s and doctoral theses to him.

In Egypt, she insisted that her doctoral defence be public and attended by geology students, challenging stereotypes about Gulf women and claims that prestigious qualifications were bought. Her argument that Doha sits above a pool of fresh water formed a central part of the discussion. On returning, she was congratulated by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

When she applied to Qatar University, the committee questioned a career that had moved from petroleum to schools and Ashghal. She replied that every stage had added knowledge and that ability should not be confined within a single mould. She joined the university in 1996 to teach geology and used those varied experiences to make lectures distinctive and engaging.

At first, the only vacancy was in the men’s section because demand in the women’s section was high. Her husband supported the appointment. She was among the lecturers who wore the abaya at a time when most women lecturers wore skirts, and the Qatari abaya subsequently became more common across the university.

In 1998, she proposed the Green Carpet initiative to preserve high-level surplus groundwater collected at pumping stations and discharged into the sea. Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani assigned her to supervise the project and brought in an expert from the United States to test her theory of abundant groundwater in Msheireb.

Implementation was required without the support of companies, causing the project to stall and leaving much of her effort unseen. Later greening projects were linked to her because their underlying idea followed the vision she had first advanced.

The initiative began with an interview about her doctorate in the Qatari newspaper Al-Arab under the headline ‘Doha Floats on a Pool of Fresh Water’. Officials investigated the claim, and an expert accompanied her to collection stations containing brackish groundwater with several domestic uses. Practical observation confirmed the case she had refused to base on hearsay alone.

She continued to deliver dozens of lectures on the value of water, influencing engineers and practitioners even though the project was not implemented as originally conceived. She also warned that treated wastewater could become a serious accumulated risk and worked to explain its use to farm owners, many of whom remained hesitant.

Her nine children—four daughters and five sons—grew into accomplished adults who share many of her values. At home, she practised a democratic and measured form of guidance, allowing wide freedom of expression while intervening in decisive choices when experience showed that firmer direction was necessary. The generations of students she taught offer another visible measure of her influence.