So I thought I would throw in my tuppenceworth ....... the basic law is that it is illegal to have sexual relations with someone you're not married to, and the authorities do take it seriously. In saying that, there are any number of people living together under one guise or another and there are also plenty of Qatari men who have girlfriends with whom they do more than just hold hands. So it's one of those "it's okay until you are caught" situations and, as somebody pointed out earlier, it only takes one pissed off neighbour to drop you in it. Someone else mentioned that the schools will do or say anything to get qualified teachers - there's a plethora of unqualified people teaching in schools here and it is ruining some kids' education.

As regards the police, I have a friend in Civil Defence (where all of the Police, Traffic Police, Fire Brigade, etc are drawn from), and  they will only hire Muslims who speak, read and write Arabic. Mostly it's Pakistanis and Sudanese, and unfortunately they are treated very differently to the Qataris who are doing the same job.

Michty me, that's a long post ....... I must be bored!!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do Louise, but as many on here have pointed out - research is very importangt before coming here to live.