The school had last week announced Professor Jocelyn Mitchell as one of three academics awarded a $700,000 grant to study “the obstacles and successes of women entrepreneurship in Qatar.”
Following the announcement, Twitter users resurfaced a 2008 blog post allegedly authored by Mitchell, a liberal arts professor. The post first elicited controversy among Northwestern Qatar’s community in 2019.
According to screenshots shared to social media, Mitchell compiled a list of observations she said originated from a “friend-of-a-friend” on life in Qatar.
On the airport arrival to capital Doha, the post read: “The scent (reek) of sweat, and some ’nationalities’ literally pushes you back a few feet.”
“Your English gets progressively worse because complete sentences are simply too advanced for the locals,” it continued. “The ratio of Men to Women is 8:2 with the ratio of Ugly Women to Not So Ugly Women being 9:1.”
Listed benefits of living in Qatar included tax free income, housing paid by companies, low-cost gas and low crime rate, unless a murder takes place after “a Indian construction worker sleeps with a Phillipino workers wife.” The presence of a U.S. military base, which rendered Americans the “big man on campus,” was included as another upside.
Social media users expressed outrage at Northwestern Qatar’s announcement, with some pointing out no female Qatari academic was among the grant’s recipients.
“One of the grantees has a dubious record on how she views Qataris and Qatar,” tweeted Vani Saraswathi, associate editor at Migrant Rights. “If you are white, all your faults are forgiven. In fact it will be rewarded! They couldn’t find a Qatari woman (of whom there are innumerable highly educated ones) to carry out this research?”
“So we’ve talked about two years ago, but here we go again. [Jocelyn] Mitchell, has a sexist, bigoted, xenophobic views on Qatari women, Qataris and Asians,” said writer Reem Al-Harmi. “[W]hat outcomes are you hoping to get from someone who’s prejudiced and detached from the Qatari society?”
Sharifa Ahen, a Northwestern Qatar alum, shared a lengthy post criticizing her alma mater’s “Western” outlook on the Gulf country and accusing Mitchell of having fabricated cultural elements relating to Qatari women in her previous published work.
“At the very least a due diligence investigation should be done in order to assess the credibility and legitimacy of potential authors prior to obtaining funds,” she wrote.
In an email to Newsweek, Mitchell said she “entirely” rejects the words and sentiments expressed in the blog.
“It does not reflect how I feel about Qatar and its many communities, especially after 13 years living and working here,” she said. “I want to thank my colleagues, students, and friends who have helped me grow in this area.”
Mitchell added the project will include Qatari and international students at Northwestern Qatar as “full research contributors,” as well as feature partnerships with Qatari organizations such as the Qatari Businesswomen Association and NAMA.
“Together we will explore the experiences of female Qatari entrepreneurs through surveys, interviews, and focus groups,” she said.
Update 2/4/21, 11:10 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include a response from Mitchell.
