Ahmed Al Mohannadi
The Family Day celebrations in Qatar this year were beautiful and attracted a large number of people.
Many thanks are due to the media for the role it played in highlighting the annual event. Of course, when we care about something we promote it through the media to give it importance.
Thanks are also due to social organisations that focused on the event.
What was beautiful this year was the effective participation in social media, with social service organisations, especially Ihsan, which cares for the elderly, playing a major role in using such media.
This helped spread awareness among members of the community.
I contributed in the media symposium in this regard through Dhreima, in collaboration with the Cultural Creativity Centre.
I wondered at the symposium what could the challenges of the family be.
I explained that they include:
1. Marital problems, including divorce, payment of alimony, and expenses on lodging and children.
2. Disregard for parents, to the extent of sending them to homes for the elderly.
3. Theft and drug addiction among children, leading to their imprisonment.
4. The high cost of marriage and ostentatious living.
5. Television programmes and other media content that has a negative influence on the youth.
What is the role of the media in this regard?
The media highlights many of these issues, but unfortunately, there is minimal cooperation from the institutions concerned.
There is rarely any response to the issues raised by the media.
The institutions are preoccupied with routine administrative work and suffer from absenteeism by their employees.
Therefore they have low productivity and fail to achieve the desired goal of reducing challenges faced by families.
What have these institutions done to reduce the divorce rate? What have they done to combat the phenomenon of spinsterhood? What have they done to resolve problems between children and their parents?
Some institutions visit schools to give children phone numbers they can call when their parents correct them. This increases the problems rather than solving them.
Other institutions, when they mediate between couples, often complicate matters, which eventually reach the courts.
We are asking for constructive cooperation, openness and frankness between the media and these institutions for changing the reality of the family in Qatar.
The Supreme Education Council is doing something similar by hosting a meeting of Qatari media persons with the Minister of Education and education officials to address issues that matter to the community.
We should not try to hide facts from or marginalise the media.
I have some proposals for ensuring the protection of the family in Qatar.
For example, the housing authority can be required to provide housing to a divorcee immediately after studying her situation.
An aid account can be opened immediately for minors and the money can be deducted from their inheritance.
Prisoners who have completed their sentences should be given a certificate of good conduct immediately instead of having to wait two years for that. Without it they can become a burden on their families since they cannot work during their probation period.
Many other laws and regulations can be similarly amended.
