Amina Mahmoud Al-Jaidah

Am(i)na Mahmoud Al-Jaidah (1913–2000) was the first woman teacher in Qatar. She opened the first school for girls in Qatar becoming the first woman to lead a school in 1953. She is a key figure in developing Education in Qatar for girls.

Life Amna Mahmoud was born in 1913. Her mother was Nayela Bint Mohamed Darwish and her father was Mahmoud Youssef Al-Jaydah and he dived for and then sold pearls. They were strict Muslims and her mother taught her the Quran. Her father encouraged her to study as he believed that boys and girls required a good education. When she was seven she began the task of memorising chapters of the Quran at a school run by Sheikh Hamid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohamed. She was taught by a woman named Mariam and her commitment grew. The children would learn for four hours in the morning and then after going home for lunch, a prayer and a siesta. They returned to the kuttab twice more each day and in three years she learnt the Quran. This was unusual for a female of any age to be a Hafiz.

In 1953, Amna Mahmoud's school came under the direction of the Qatari Ministry of Education. paid by the state. She still had to travel slowly and her house was converted into a school and her male students were transferred to the boys' school. Some parents withdrew their daughters but many other joined and another building had to be included. Two more women teachers were employed for what was named the Banat El Doha School (Daughters of Doha School) and Mahmoud was the country's first woman Principal. This gave Mahmoud personal challenges as the school was offering access to a better education than she had ever enjoyed. She had to study privately so she could keep up with the student's ambitions.

The Amina Mahmoud Al Jaida Primary Girls school in Doha is named for her. In 2018 the artist Iman al Saad staged an exhibition called "Words of Gold" using works from the Quran. Iman al Saad dedicated all the profits from the exhibition to charity as she had been inspired by her mother Amna Mahmoud Al-Jaidah.