Fatima Elhag

Fatima Elhag is a DPhil candidate at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. She is a recipient of the Oxford–Qatar Thatcher Scholarship and the Oxford Academic Futures Scholarship.

Her research in Islamic and family law offers an ethnographic study of the family legal system in Qatar. She examines the 2006 codification of family law through a close reading of published and unpublished court rulings and interviews with judges, clerks, and litigants. She also conducts participant observation within court settings to observe the operation of legal processes in practice. Her project seeks to analyze how judges reason and how litigants navigate Qatar’s family legal system to pursue justice and resolve family disputes.

Fatima is originally from Sudan. She completed her BA in Islamic Law and Theology at Jabra Academic College in Khartoum, where she graduated with honors, served as a teaching assistant, and received the Outstanding Academic Award and placement on the Dean’s List. She earned her MA from Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, where her thesis on the regulation of family life received the Outstanding Thesis Award. She also worked as a research assistant at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Fatima has presented her research at several academic conferences and public forums, including the Jadal Summit for Women’s Dialogue and Georgetown University in Qatar.

Beyond academia, she is the co-founder of Al-Risala, a non-profit organization supporting education for women and vulnerable communities in rural Sudan. She also enjoys public speaking and Arabic oratory and won first place in the Qatar Ministry of Culture's 2023 Arabic Oratory Competition.