Her Royal Highness Moza bint Nasser Al Missned has devoted much of her public life to promoting education — but it’s the Qatari royal’s closet that has lately been in the spotlight, as her country hosts the World Cup.
Sheikha Moza, the mother of Qatar’s current emir and wife of former leader Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, is among the most elegant women in the world. The 63-year-old is also the modern face of one of the globe’s most repressive regimes, which outlaws homosexuality and has, in the past, supported Islamist terrorist movements throughout the Middle East, including Hamas.
The Guardian has described Moza as “the enlightened face of a profoundly conservative regime.” She’s also been called “the actual ruler of Qatar.”
Dark-eyed and regal, she is widely considered the favorite among her husband’s wives. The couple has seven children, ranging in age from 31 to 44.
Sheikha Moza was born in Qatar but grew up in Egypt and Kuwait, where her father was living in exile as an opponent of the regime. She returned to Qatar in 1977, at age 18, to marry Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, a member of Qatar’s royal family who eventually overthrew his own father in a bloodless coup in 1995. She is the second of his three wives.
While women in Qatar are still subject to male guardian laws — meaning they cannot study, travel abroad or hold a job without permission from male relatives — Sheikha Moza seemingly has a great deal of liberty, especially with respect to travel and her clothes. Many attribute this to her status as not only the spouse of the former ruler, but also the mother of current emir, Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani, who had to compete with his 10 full and half-brothers to ascend to the throne nine years ago (his 13 sisters were not eligible).
Moza, who has been described as “the Babe Paley of the Middle East,” was named to the International Best Dressed List in 2015. She is famous for her much-copied turbans, often paired with vintage Persol sunglasses. An Instagram fan account, sheikhamozafashion, breathlessly chronicles her outfits and has more than 214,000 followers.
The sheikha’s fascination with fashion has also impacted business decisions: In 2010, the Qatari royal family purchased London’s iconic Harrods department store for $1.7 billion; two years later, they snapped up Italy’s legendary Valentino fashion house for more than $857 million.
“In addition to being a beautiful woman, she is very calm, she speaks in a low voice and she knows what she wants,” Brazilian designer Victor Dzenk told O Globo newspaper . “She asked me for some modifications in the pieces she ordered. Those that had short sleeves, she asked for long sleeves and those that had a plunging neckline, she asked for a more discreet look.”
Indeed, Moza is known for her canny ability to adapt vintage Chanel pieces to suit Qatari modesty, and also embraces modern designs by Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Dior.
“It’s my mental treat,” Moza recently told Vogue Arabia. “When I’m exhausted, I go to my dressing room and go through my closets, and I try to mix things and fix things.”
She also told the magazine that she doesn’t have a stylist “because I wouldn’t find anyone who understands what I want.”
During a state visit to Britain in 2014, Moza wore a Chanel couture suit with icicle-heeled furry boots, prompting British designer Julien Macdonald to note that “not since Jackie O has any first lady had such global resonance in terms of fashion.” During that same 2014 visit to England, she wore a chrome green Dior skirt suit to Parliament, a red Valentino gown to a banquet at Buckingham palace, and a black and gold Armani Prive pantsuit to a meeting with British business leaders. On her last day in London, the sheikha wore a burgundy double-breasted jacket handmade by Jean Paul Gaultier’s studio and accessorized with Cartier jewelry.
Moza is often photographed on trips to Paris, and is a regular at couture shows. Among her close friends is socialite and former Brazilian model Bethy Lagardere, who was married to the late Jean-Luc Lagardere — the billionaire owner of Hachette, which published ELLE magazine around the world.
“She has a great interest in culture,” Brazilian writer Nelida Pinon, who invited Moza to the exclusive Brazilian Academy of Letters in Rio de Janeiro, told The Post. “She is an enchanting woman … very elegant but also incredibly down to Earth. You don’t ever imagine that someone who is such an important woman is so easygoing.”
Rather than dine at a posh restaurant, Pinon said, Moza preferred a traditional “comida por quilo” in Rio, where food is served by the kilo and the service is almost entirely DIY.
But not everyone is a fan. The sheikha has been accused of manipulating her son’s rise to the top and criticized for not focusing more on women’s issues.
Moza, meanwhile, has enjoyed freedom in her own education and has a master of Arts in Public Policy in Islam from Hamad bin Khalifa University’s Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, as well as a degree in sociology. She has been awarded honorary doctorates by Virginia Commonwealth University, Texas A&M University, Carnegie Mellon University, Imperial College London and Georgetown University.
For years, she has worked to promote education reforms in her country through the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a non-profit founded by her husband the year he became emir. The group has recruited institutions such as Georgetown University and Weill Cornell Medical College to create Qatari campuses.
The sheikha was also named a UNESCO special envoy for education in 2003 and was instrumental in establishing the country’s philharmonic. Most recently, she presided over the organization of myriad art installations being unveiled in Qatar during the World Cup, which ends Dec. 18.
Naturally, she chose an incredibly stylish — and meaningful — designer outfit for the tournament’s opening ceremony on Nov. 20: the custom Prada dress and winged Chaumet brooch that she also wore in 2010 when Qatar bid on hosting the World Cup.
