For most of its history, Qatar practiced slavery until its abolition in 1952. Many members of the Afro-Arabian minority are descendants of the former slaves. Chattel slavery was succeeded by the Kafala system. The Qatari government officially announced that the kafala system has been abolished in Qatar in December 2016, but as of 2026 both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have found that foreign labourers in Qatar continue to face widespread abuses under a "restrictive" and "exploitative" Kafala system.
History
Slave trade Omani route
During the Omani Empire (1692–1856), Oman was a center of the Zanzibar slave trade. Slaves were trafficked from the Swahili coast of East Africa via Zanzibar to Oman. From Oman, the slaves were exported to the rest of the Arabian Peninsula and Persia, including the Trucial States, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Oman's optimal location between the Arabian Sea and the Gulf region positioned it as a key player in the Zanzibar slave trade. Serving as a pivotal navigation point, Oman gained significant importance in the history of the Arabian Gulf region. The economic impact of the slave trade persisted, becoming a substantial factor in shaping Oman's economy in the post-slave trade era.
The Omani slave trade from Africa started to shrink in the late 19th century.
Hajj route
A second route of slave trade existed, with people from both Africa and East Asia, who were smuggled to Jeddah in the Arabian Peninsula in connection to the Muslim pilgrimage, Hajj, to Mecca and Medina. Victims were tricked to perform the journey willingly in the belief that they were going on the Hajj pilgrimage, or employed as servants, and then sold upon arrival. These slaves were then exported from the Hejaz to Oman, the Trucial States, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Balochistan route In the 1940s, a third slave trade route was recorded, through which individuals from the Balochistan region were transported across the Persian Gulf, with many selling themselves or their children to escape severe poverty.Suzanne Miers: Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem, p. 304–06 In 1943, reports indicated that young women from this region were shipped via Oman and the Trucial States to Mecca, where they were sold as concubines for $350–450 following the decline in the availability of Caucasian women.Suzanne Miers: Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem, p. 304–07
Function and conditions
Slavery was practiced by the House of Thani and the wealthy merchants, but also by ordinary villagers, who could own only one or two slaves.Tusiani, M. D. (2023). From Black Gold to Frozen Gas: How Qatar Became an Energy Superpower. USA: Columbia University Press.
Female slaves Female slaves were primarily used as either domestic servants, or as concubines (sex slaves).Suzanne Miers: Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem, p. 265-66 The PDQ Oil Company had 250 slave laborers during its first year of production in Qatar in 1949.
Black African women were primarily used as domestic house slaves rather than exclusively for sexual services, while white Caucasian women (normally Circassian or Georgian) were preferred as concubines (sex slaves), and when the main slave route of white slave girls was reduced after Russia's conquest of the Caucasus and Central Asia in the mid 19th-century (reducing the Black Sea slave trade and the Kazakh Khanate slave trade), Balochistan and "Red" Ethiopian (Oromo and Sidamo) women became the preferred targets for sexual slavery.Women and Slavery: Africa, the Indian Ocean world, and the medieval north Atlantic. (2007). Grekland: Ohio University Press. p. 13 Non-African female slaves were sold in the Persian Gulf where they were bought for marriage; these were fewer and often Armenian, Georgian, or from Baluchistan and India.ZDANOWSKI, J. The Manumission Movement in the Gulf in the First Half of the Twentieth Century, Middle Eastern Studies, 47:6, 2011, p. 871.
Female slaves were often used for sexual services as concubines for a period of time, and then sold or married off to other slaves; the slave owners would arranged both marriages and divorce for their slaves, and the offspring of two slaves would become slaves in turn.ZDANOWSKI, J. The Manumission Movement in the Gulf in the First Half of the Twentieth Century, Middle Eastern Studies, 47:6, 2011, p. 864. It was common for slave owners to claim sexual services of married female slaves when the slave husband was away for long periods of time, to hunt for pearls or fish or similar labor, and sexual abuse was a common reason given when female slaves applied for manumission at the British Agency.
Male slaves During the flourishing period of the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century, male slaves played a pivotal role in the burgeoning pearl industry of Qatar, particularly as pearl divers. The thriving pearl diving sector not only led to the establishment of coastal settlements but also triggered significant migration to Qatar. Subsequently, the nation witnessed a substantial economic upturn attributed to the prosperity of the pearl fishing industry. This economic boom facilitated Qatar's integration into the global economy and marked the initiation of globalization in the region. Predominantly of African descent, these slaves, constituting approximately a quarter to a third of Qatar's population, were prominently engaged in the cultivation and exploitation of pearls and used in a number of other tasks: as soldiers, farm labourers, cash crop workers, maritime sailors, dock workers, porters, irrigation canal workers, fishermen, and domestic servants.Zdanowski J. Slavery in the Gulf in the First Half of the 20th Century : A Study Based on Records from the British Archives. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Askon; 2008
It was common for Arab men to use the sexual services of enslaved African women, but a male African slave who had sexual relations with a local "pure blood" Arab woman would be executed to preserve tribal honor and social status, regardless if the couple had married or not.THESIGER, W. The Marsh Arabs. Penguin Classics, London, 2007, p. 69.
Activism against slave trade
The British Empire gained control of Qatar in the 1890s and signed the 1926 Slavery Convention to fight enslavement in all land under their control. However, they doubted their ability to stop Qataris from continuing slavery, so the British policy was therefore to assure the League of Nations that Qatar followed the same anti-slavery treaties signed by the British and prevent observation of the area that could disprove the claims.Suzanne Miers: Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem, p. 164–66 In the 1940s, there were several suggestions made by the British to combat the slave trade and the slavery in the region, but none was considered enforceable on the Qataris.
Manumission According to British policy, if a slave escaped and applied for manumission in one of its Political Agencies, they were eligible to receive a manumission certificate. Granting such certificates also served as a non-recognition of the legitimacy of slavery by the British government. As the British have not established a Political Agency in Qatar until 1949, slaves seeking manumission were compelled to escape and often travel to Bahrain to apply for a certificate. Archived files from the India Office contain hundreds of slave manumission statements, which were typically generated following an interview process conducted by the staff at the relevant Political Agency.
The number of female slaves in the Gulf was as high or higher than that of male slaves, but the number of female slaves who made applications for manumission at the British Agencies in the Gulf was significantly lower (only 280 of 950 documented cases in 1921–1946), likely because in the Islamic society of the Gulf, where women were excluded from wage labour and public life, it was impossible for a freedwoman to survive without a male protector.
Common characteristics of slavery included the kidnapping of young boys by slave traffickers from regions such as Baluchistan, Yemen, Oman, or Africa, who were typically forced into indentured servitude in the pearling industry. Women, conversely, were often subjected to domestic servitude. Prominent reasons for seeking manumission encompassed experiences of violence, abuse, imprisonment, mistreatment, inadequate food and clothing, and the desire to reunite with family or avoid separation from them.
Some of the archived manumission statements:
Sa'id bin Husain: My parents were free persons living at Madina (Hedjaz). I was kidnapped from them when I was about 10 years old. I was brought by land to Kuwait, where I was sold to Salih Sulaiman al-Mana' of Qatar. My latter master brought me to Qatar and ever since I have been in his service. During summer I go to diving and in winter I work in the household. He used to give me very little money for my expenses. In the beginning he was treating me nicely and lately his treatment has been very bad, which fact has led me to run away. I, my wife Hasinah bint Marzook, and my son Abdur-Razzak walked from Dohah to the northern shore of Qatar where we joined a sailing boat as passengers for Bahrain. Now we have come to the Agency applying to be granted with manumission certificates.
Statement of Almas bin Muhammad:
I was born at Mekran. When I was a small boy I went with my family to Dubai where we lived. About 5 years ago, while I was walking from Dubai to Sharjah, I was kidnapped by certain bedouins who took me to Buraimi and sold me to one Abdullah bin Ghurab. After a short period, Abdullah brought me to Qatar and sold me to my present master Saad bin Majid of Wakra in whose service I have been since then. My master used to send me out diving and take over my earnings. In other times I used to perform odd jobs for him. He was not giving me good treatment. He arrived recently with his family from Qatar and brought me along with. I seized the opportunity of my presence in Bahrain and came to the Agency praying that I may be manumitted. My master is staying at Halat Bu Mahir.
Mubarak Bin Rozah:
My name is Mubarak bin Rozah. I am relating my name to my mother's because I do not know the name of my father nor the country from which I was brought to Qatar. I also do not know whether I was a born slave from slave parents or from free parents. I was too small, when I was brought to Qatar by the Bedouins, to recognize them. They sold me to one Sa'ad bin Husain, a Qatar subject. He died and I was transferred to his daughter Fatmah, who also died ... My master sold my wife and daughter to Sultan Walad Towar, who took my wife to Riyadh and sold her there. My daughter died at Qatar. I have been much ill-treated by this master and I have no intention to return to Qatar. I pray that I may be freed and allowed to remain at Bahrain. If I go back to Qatar, I will again be put into slavery, which I no longer like.
Zalikah bint Jumah: