While President Henry Bienen talked about the opportunities that Northwestern’s branch campus in Qatar will bring students, Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser al-Missned nodded politely. Soon after, the wife of Qatar’s head of state turned to nearby student journalists and asked them what they thought about the prevailing “negative narratives” and stereotypes that are broadcast in the Middle East and the West.
“How can we in a way create a sort of confidence that could really prevent these type of feelings?” she asked. “Because once they are there, they become feelings of hate on both sides.”
Known as a publicly visible and outspoken first lady in the Middle East, Sheikha Mozah spent part of her whirlwind two-day tour of Northwestern visiting Medill’s broadcast facilities as police cars flanked the McCormick Tribune Center on Wednesday morning, in the only part of the tour opened to the media. This fall, classes will begin at Northwestern’s journalism and communication school in Qatar’s Education City, which is run by a foundation that Mozah chairs.
Although the sheikha was shown examples of students’ best work — an award-winning student documentary about a notorious Chicago housing project, as well as NNN’s Emmy-Award-winning SportsNight — she seemed just as interested in bridging the gap between the Middle East and the U.S., asking students how they viewed al-Jazeera, and the media in general.
When one student commented that news organizations should spend more money on international reporting, the sheikha said, “You’re right, and I think they should be setting their priorities in a different way, and I think that should be one of their priorities — to spend more on good media. That could really cross the bridge between U.S. and us.”
Sheikha Mozah herself has reached out beyond Qatar, becoming a special envoy for basic and higher education for UNESCO. At home, besides chairing the Qatar Foundation, Sheikha Mozah is the vice president of the nation’s Supreme Education Council, which aims to improve public schools for Qatari children. She’s one of a few active first ladies in the region, joined by Suzanne Mubarak of Egypt and Queen Rania al-Abdullah of Jordan, said Isobel Coleman, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“She definitely is a groundbreaker, in some respects, and has been a real driver behind the educational initiatives of her country,” said Coleman, author of a forthcoming book, Paradise Beneath Her Feet: Women and Reform in the Middle East.
Sheikha Mozah’s interest in women and children is reflected in her itinerary in America. On Thursday she will tour the Chicago campus and Prentice Women’s Hospital, part of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said Alan Cubbage, the vice president of university relations. She then will travel to Georgetown University, where she will receive an honorary degree this weekend.
Assistant Professor Larry Stuelpnagel, who presented the documentary and SportsNight to Sheikha Mozah, called her a “very impressive woman.”
“I thought her highness asked a lot of good questions,” he said.