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Ashraf Siddiqui
Doha
Laura Wrede, a German national, who has served in Doha for around seven years, from 2010 to 2017, was in Qatar recently during the recently-held ‘S’hail – Katara International Hunting and Falcons Exhibition’.
An avid lover of falcons since her childhood in Germany, she reminisces how she learnt the art of falcon training in Qatar.
Talking to Qatar Tribune, she said, “It was a great opportunity for me [while in Qatar] to learn and understand more about falcons and hunting through it.”
Hunting and falconry in the Arab culture is the hobby of primarily the men, she pointed out. So, it was difficult for her to convince people about her passion for learning the art of bird training. After lots of persuasion, a local woman agreed to give her a bird to train. “But the bird was stubborn, probably because of its advanced age. I failed in teaching the bird and later released it. It’s important to learn how the falcon behaves and what upsets it.”
She once came across a local with a ‘shaheen’ in Souq Waqif. She approached him to learn falcon training. The man initially tried to avoid, but Laura managed to convince him. From then onwards, she stayed with the family in the deserts where she observed and learned more closely the desert life.
Laura, who got married last year and now lives with family and three falcons in Spain, still enjoys very close family relations with her instructor and his family.
She wrote a book in German language narrating her experience of life in Qatar. The book’s title is inspired by her name given to her by the locals during her stay in the deserts of Qatar – ‘Laura von Arabien’ (the Laura of Arabia).
Doha
Laura Wrede, a German national, who has served in Doha for around seven years, from 2010 to 2017, was in Qatar recently during the recently-held ‘S’hail – Katara International Hunting and Falcons Exhibition’.
An avid lover of falcons since her childhood in Germany, she reminisces how she learnt the art of falcon training in Qatar.
Talking to Qatar Tribune, she said, “It was a great opportunity for me [while in Qatar] to learn and understand more about falcons and hunting through it.”
Hunting and falconry in the Arab culture is the hobby of primarily the men, she pointed out. So, it was difficult for her to convince people about her passion for learning the art of bird training. After lots of persuasion, a local woman agreed to give her a bird to train. “But the bird was stubborn, probably because of its advanced age. I failed in teaching the bird and later released it. It’s important to learn how the falcon behaves and what upsets it.”
She once came across a local with a ‘shaheen’ in Souq Waqif. She approached him to learn falcon training. The man initially tried to avoid, but Laura managed to convince him. From then onwards, she stayed with the family in the deserts where she observed and learned more closely the desert life.
Laura, who got married last year and now lives with family and three falcons in Spain, still enjoys very close family relations with her instructor and his family.
She wrote a book in German language narrating her experience of life in Qatar. The book’s title is inspired by her name given to her by the locals during her stay in the deserts of Qatar – ‘Laura von Arabien’ (the Laura of Arabia).
