The last episode of this season's Doha Debates will examine the critical role that family plays in the Arab world and will question whether family is indeed a barrier to progress

DOHA, May 29: The Arab family comes under an intense spotlight this week as the Doha Debates examines its influence on political reform in the region.

A panel of experts from the Gulf countries will probe the strengths and weaknesses of the family unit and consider whether or not it impedes the social and political changes now underway.

The debate follows widespread complaints by Arab experts that the region is "missing the flight to the future". But who's to blame?  Who encourages progress and who blocks it?

The controversial motion  "This house believes the family is a major obstacle to reform in the Arab world" will be debated at the headquarters of the Qatar Foundation, on Tuesday at 7.30pm and recorded for transmission by BBC World TV on June 10th and 11th.

Speaking in favour of the motion will be Kuwaiti sociologist Dr Mohammed Al-Rumaihi and Hayfa Matar, from the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who will be taking up a post at the UN later this year. Speaking against the motion will be Kuwaiti psychologist and well-known commentator Dr Ibrahim Al Khulaifi, and Dr Islah Jad, lecturer on gender issues and politics at BirZeit University in the West Bank.

The chairman of the Debates, Tim Sebastian, said the issue of the family is bound to provoke some heated discussion. "The family is seen by many in the Arab world as the sacred core of society," he said.  "What we hope to debate is the role of the family during the profound changes that are now taking place in the region."

The debates are sponsored by the Qatar Foundation and provide a forum for exploring controversial issues in Arab and Islamic societies.

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EDITOR'S NOTES
THE DOHA DEBATES are a public forum for dialogue and freedom of speech in Qatar. Each month invited speakers debate the burning issues of the Arab and Islamic world in front of an audience who are encouraged to participate by asking questions. The Debates, a project of the Qatar Foundation, are chaired by the internationally renowned broadcaster Tim Sebastian.

In the first series of the Doha Debates, held at the headquarters of Qatar foundation in Doha's Education City, prominent speakers included: Clare Short, British MP; Dr.Mahathir Mohamed, former Malaysian prime minister; Toujan Feisal, Jordan's only female MP; Mustapha Ceric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina; Fouad Ajami, director of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University and adviser to the Bush administration; Rabbi Michael Melchior, Israeli minister; Ghassan Khatib, Palestinian minister; and Mohammed al Douri, former Iraqi ambassador to the U.N.

Prominent speakers for the second series have included Ahmed Maher, former Egyptian Foreign Minister; James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute; Ramzi Salman, advisor to Qatar's Minister of Energy and Industry and former deputy secretary general for OPEC and Raymond Tanter, former senior staff member of the U.S. National Security Council and personal representative of the U.S. Secretary of Defense to arms control talks in Europe in the Reagan-Bush administration.

For more information, please visit www.thedohadebates.com.

QATAR FOUNDATION is a private, nonprofit, chartered organization committed to the principle that a nation's greatest natural resource is its people. The foundation is headquartered in a unique Education City, which hosts numerous progressive learning institutions and centers of research, including branch campuses of five of the world's leading universities.

For more information, please visit www.qf.org.qa

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© Press Release 2006