REPORT: Qatari diplomatic crisis affects thousands of families

The ongoing diplomatic dispute between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors over the past month has affected more than 6,000 families in Qatar, with many being left separated from their loved ones.

The row has seen Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates cut their diplomatic relationship with Qatar, with the three countries not permitting their nationals to travel to Qatar and demanding those who had lived in the country to leave immediately, warning them that staying any longer could cost them their citizenship.

Wafa is a Qatari neurologist. She married a Bahraini man in 2001 and the couple subsequently had three children, all of whom have Bahraini nationality. After divorcing, the children chose to live with the mother. But the diplomatic dispute means that the children have had to leave Qatar.

“They told us it's more like a blockade of their citizenship and also that all the Bahraini, Emirati, and Saudi Arabian (citizens) they should leave. Then we said, 'No, that would not happen.' But then when they announced it the next day, coming out and telling us that everyone from these three countries should leave their country. We realized it's bigger than what we suspected. It's a nightmare. We couldn't sleep. It was like a terrible month for us,” said Wafa.

She managed to send her children to Sweden to stay with relatives there in the hope that they would not be affected by the crisis.  

“I'm alone in my country without my children because of that. Why do they want to do that to us? It's hurt me a lot. Maybe we'll forgive, but we'll never forget what happened. How can they do it to us? Why? They don't keep in their mind that in the Gulf region, all the countries, we are a mixture,” Wafa said.

She added that she was worried that the row might disturb her children’s future and their potential education at Qatar University.

Like many other concerned Qataris, Wafa changed her portrait on social media into one of the Emir of Qatar, as a gesture to show unity and solidarity among the nationals towards a way out of the crisis.