Feature: A letter from Doha

DOHA, Qatar, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The recent inauguration of Qatar's Education City complex of U.S. and other foreign campuses in the desert also launched Sheikha Mozah Nasser al-Misnad as an international figure.

In a region where women traditionally maintain a low profile the stunning wife of Qatar's ruler has emerged as the leading force behind one of the most ambitious and far-reaching projects ever planned in the Middle East.

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Western sources say it was Sheikha Mozah who conceived the idea of setting up and financing the vast expanse of Education City on the outskirts of the capital, Doha. She was also responsible for every phase of its development from making the initial approach to the universities to approving building plans.

Initially, U.S. diplomats had drawn up a list of Midwestern state colleges for possible inclusion in the project. But the Sheikha wanted only the best and prepared her own list of potential targets.

In October, she opened the Doha campus of two of her choices: the Weil Cornell University Medical School, and a Texas A&M University petrochemical college. A School of Design from the Virginia Commonwealth University was already up and running.

That's just the beginning.

"The journey of selection led us to assess institutions all over the world," she said in her good English, "and it is still ongoing."

Qatar sources say her current target is to invite several other institutions to establish campuses in Doha, including an international business school from Fontainebleau, France, and a leading London music school.

Arab journalists covering the opening said other American-oriented institutions of higher learning in the region were nervous about the Sheikha's project. A correspondent from An Nahar, the leading Beirut daily told United Press International that officials at the long-established American University in Beirut were already worried about the competitive challenge of Education City.

Sheikha Mozah's personal drift toward emancipation also produces its own anxiety in some Gulf countries.

"Qatar drives its neighbors up the wall," a well-informed U.S. official said in the small Gulf state recently. "The Saudis are really nervous about what's happening here."

Women in Saudi Arabia, Qatar's powerful neighbor, still live under tight constraints. They are still segregated in public places, are not allowed to drive cars, and have to wear a head covering and the traditional abaaya, the long robe that encases them from neck to toe.

In Qatar, the abaaya is optional -- rarely worn by teenagers, but frequently by older women. Qatari women mix freely with men, and can be seen behind the wheel of their own cars.

But Sheikha Mozah represents change on another front as well.

The Saudis are probably more concerned about the very principle behind Education City, which is to open the region to Western ideas and thought. As the custodians of Mecca, Islam's main holy place, the Saudis see themselves as the protectors of Islamic values and traditions.

A native Qatari and said to be in her mid-40s, she is not the only wife of Qatar's 53-year-old Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, but she is officially described as his consort. She attended Qatar University where she studied sociology.

A source in Doha said that the first time Qataris were able to see what she looked like was two years ago when she broke with custom and appeared without her veil at the signing of the agreement with Cornell University to establish the medical school.

Since then, her picture, without the face covering, has been published in the Qatari media several times, and seen on television. In other respects she adheres to tradition by wearing the long, black robe gathered at the waist, with a black veil on her head. But at a recent state dinner in Doha she made a grand entrance in a red robe and veil, with a large ruby pendant round her neck.

To develop Education City she set up the Qatar Foundation, which she heads. Several sources emphasized that she is no figurehead president, at the same time hinting at a driven personality.

A couple of weeks ago, at a meeting with senior staffers from the RAND Corp., the California think tank that is advising her on restructuring Qatar's school system, Sheikha Mozah seemed tired and subdued at first. "She had been working very hard," one of the participants recalled, "but when we started discussing the project she suddenly came alive."

Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corp., a leading grant-giving body, calls her, "One of the most imaginatively forceful, honest, determined people I've ever met." He says she recruited him for the Qatar Foundation board of trustees after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had introduced them. Though he doesn't come right out and say it, his remarks suggested that one she began her campaign to enlist his support he didn't have much choice.

The primary aim of the Sheikha's ambitious plans, sources close to her say, is to elevate Qatari talent to meet the responsibility of their wealth. Thanks to its huge liquid gas reserves Qatar, experts maintain that the Gulf state is well on the road to becoming the richest country in the world.

But Qataris make up less than 50 percent of the country's half a million population, with immigrants from other Arab nations making up most of the rest. Given the size of the population, the scope of Education City (the Weil Cornell Medical School alone covers 42,000 sq. feet) indicates a larger ambition.

Sheikha Mozah's aunt is quite candid about that broader vision. "We hope to reshape the whole region," Sheikha (her first name, not a title) al-Misnat told reporters in Doha. "This is a sincere, solid, quality project."

The president of Qatar University, Sheikha al-Misnat is said to be one of Sheikha Mozah's closest advisers. Sheikha Moza also clearly has the support of her husband, the emir, whose own progressive views have led Qatar being the first Gulf country to allow women to vote and hold public office.

The executive in charge of the Kuwaiti company that coordinates the different construction operations said she was not able to give the precise size of Education City because, "The Sheikha keeps adding new projects."

There's no accurate cost figure either. A Qatar Foundation official privately agreed that the cost was enormous. When she opened the Weil Cornell University Medical School Sheikha Mozah said Qater will "dedicate a significant portion of its gross domestic product to research and development." Education city was obviously a part of it.