Tamuq students showcase Qatari culture, traditions

The Qatari Students Association (QSA) at Texas A&M University atQatar (Tamuq) yesterday organised a special cultural event ‘Mal Lawal’,to highlight Qatari culture and traditions. Held outside Tamuq’s link atrium door, the event attracted faculty andstaff members of the university as well as a number of visitors who weretreated to traditional Qatari food and beverages.The event provided the members of the community with an insight intoQatari culture and values. Through a range of colourful stalls, visitorslearnt about traditional dress, greeting rituals, and sword dance. TheQSA is one of the largest student-led groups at Tamuq that encouragesQatari students to volunteer and contribute to their community wheneverpossible.Mohamed al-Mansouri, president, QSA and an electrical engineering 4thyear student said that the event was aimed at two types of audiences.‘Mal Lawal’ means old days. For Qataris, we like to relive the good olddays. For the non-Qataris, we want to showcase the Qatari culture in a newsophisticated way. We are teaching everyone Qatari practices and values.We show them how to serve coffee; how to greet each other, weartraditional dress as well as to dance with sword. We are also doing asimulation of the wedding ceremony for the females,” explainedal-Mansouri.  “We have a small museum of all the equipment that were used for pearldiving in the old days. We are also providing some traditional Qatarifood. We also have showcased the model of a Land Cruiser from the 70s asLand Cruiser also has become part of our community from the 1960s. Allthe products displayed at the event are made by the students,”continued, al-Mansouri.According to QSA president, the association was formed from a smallstudents club with a handful of students. “We began by forming a studentclub. It was just about a handful of students in the beginning and nowit has become a big organisation of more than 70 students. We all worktogether and arrange and manage several events. We have alreadyconducted several events at the Education City. So, we decided to do anew cultural event named Mal Awal at our campus,” he noted.  “We have a very strong Qatari students association and they are veryactive. They arrange many events to highlight Qatari culture andcelebrate them. Over 56% of our students are Qataris. We promote studentgovernments in the university and they have formed several clubs,”added Dr Cesar Malave, Dean, Tamuq.