Press release: New QRDI Research Project Explores the social experiences and implications of female egg freezing technology in Qatar
The Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) has launched a new research project examining how family life, faith, and social values influence experiences and decisions related to fertility in Qatar and the broader Arab region.
4/29/20263 min read
The Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) has launched a new research project examining how family life, faith, and social values influence experiences and decisions related to fertility in Qatar and the broader Arab region. Titled “Fertility, Faith and Family: Tracing fertility preservation trends, experiences and challenges in Qatar - A sociological wraparound intervention”, the project is funded by the Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation Council (QRDI) for 2025-2028.
Over the past five decades, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have profoundly reshaped how families are formed worldwide. For instance, since the birth of the first in-vitro fertilization (IVF) baby in 1978, more than 13 million children globally have been born through IVF and related reproductive technologies. These developments highlight how reproductive technologies are no longer marginal medical interventions, but central forces shaping demographic change, family formation, individual preferences, and how societies imagine their reproductive futures.
As countries across the Arab region experience rapid social and technological change, questions related to fertility and reproduction are becoming increasingly visible. Decisions around childbearing are no longer influenced by medical considerations alone; they are deeply connected to family relationships, cultural expectations, religious values, education, work trajectories, and broader ideas about the future of individuals, couples, communities, and states.
This project seeks to understand these shifts through a social and human lens, using female fertility preservation, particularly egg freezing, as a key entry point for tracing Arab reproductive futures.
The research team is headed by Dr. Dina Taha, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Sociology and Anthropology program at the DI, as Lead Principal Investigator. The project brings together an international interdisciplinary team of scholars and practitioners, including Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, Professor of Islam and Biomedical Ethics at Hamad Bin Khalifa University; Dr. Aleya Abd El Hadi, Senior Consultant and former Chairperson of Assisted Reproductive Center at Hamad Medical Corporation; Dr. Marcia C. Inhorn, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University, USA; and Dr. Suhaila Ghuloum, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Hamad Medical Corporation and Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, Qatar.
Rather than treating fertility as a purely clinical matter, the project approaches it as a lived social experience. It examines how Qatari nationals and residents think about and plan for fertility and reproduction, how reproductive decisions are discussed within families, and how faith, ethics, and social norms shape these conversations. By focusing on egg freezing and fertility preservation, the research explores how emerging reproductive technologies are understood, negotiated, and embedded within specific cultural and moral contexts in Qatar as well as across the Arab world.
A defining feature of the project is its community-engagement approach. The research is designed to listen before it concludes. It relies on interviews, focus groups, surveys, and community forums to capture everyday perspectives and lived experiences. The goal is not to promote specific medical choices or provide health advice, but to create space for respectful dialogue and deeper understanding.
An advisory committee bringing together academic experts, community stakeholders, including healthcare professionals and policy makers, and people with lived experience will support and guide this process.
“Egg and embryo freezing is more than a medical practice; it is a social mirror,” said Dr. Dina Taha. “Studying female fertility preservation in Qatar opens a window onto Arab reproductive futures. It sits at the intersection of medicine, technology, family expectations, Islamic ethics, and social change. By tracing how women and families engage with this technology, we can better understand how ideas about motherhood, timing, women’s empowerment, and kinship are being negotiated in contemporary Arab societies, while situating these experiences within wider global trends.”
By combining social research with insights from implementation science, the project also promotes ways in which knowledge can move beyond academic spaces. It explores how research findings can inform communication strategies, support services, and policy discussions in ways that are culturally sensitive and grounded in real-life needs. Particular attention is given to how women and families can be more meaningfully included in structural conversations and decisions that affect their lives.
By situating Qatar at the center of this research, the project contributes to positioning the country as a regional hub for knowledge on the social and bioethical dimensions of reproductive futures, while connecting local experiences to broader debates unfolding across the Arab world.
Further updates about the project’s activities, public engagement initiatives, and research milestones will be shared through the project’s website, social media handles, or by joining the project’s mailing list.
Direct link to the press release can be found here.
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Fertility, Faith and Family: Tracing fertility preservation trends, experiences and challenges in Qatar - A sociological wraparound intervention is a QRDI funded project (ARG02-0409-240161) hosted by the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies
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