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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Hafsa Adil

When they came, a Qatar World Cup was unthinkable. Now it’s here

Qatar World Cup Doha Al Jazeera Football
A view of the ever expanding Doha skyline [File: Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]

Doha, Qatar – Shehar Bano Rizvi moved from the bubbling, ever-expanding metropolis of Karachi to a calmer Doha soon after her marriage in 2004.

The then-23-year-old Pakistani expat was not impressed when she arrived in the Qatari capital, thinking she had landed in the middle of a desert in more ways than one. The streets were empty and the shopping options scarce. A solitary five-star hotel, a basic mall and a smattering of office buildings stood in West Bay.

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