Women at Work: Breaking the Emirati Stereotype

Rohit Nair talks to five UAE women about certain preconceived notions people have about them, and discovers how they are completely unlike anything you thought they were!

They're lazy, spoilt, pampered, entitled, excessively rich princesses and a bunch of show offs. They don't work, and employ an army of maids and nannies so they can spend all their time shopping, mall crawling and eating leisurely meals. There are still many of us who live with the misconception, or preconceived - if you've been indulged by those who spread tales of errant Emiratis - notion that all Emiratis, particularly women, are one and the same. Prepare to have those stereotypes come crashing down as five Emirati women tell it like it is, like a mythbusting clan, decked in abayas, hijabs and sheilas.


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 Imangine that!
The first lady I spoke to is as convivial and infectiously hilarious as any I've met. Iman Ben Chaibah, CEO and editor-in-chief of Sail magazine, jumps up to greet me, hand extended and clasped firmly. So the handshaking myth is almost instantly busted. Then Iman launches into a tirade on the ridiculous other things people stereotype her with, starting with the most obvious: why is she working so hard? "I think that's the strangest thing, even coming from other non-local Arabs. 'You're Emirati, you come from a good family, why do you want to work?'"
But Iman has always worked hard. Growing up in a house with two brothers, she was always competing against them. Just after she finished her Bachelor's in Computer Science - yup, she's a programmer, which is all kinds of cool - and her Master's in Product Management, she was already hunting for jobs in the private sector. "My first job was with Emaar and, boy, was that crazy. Crazy hours, fast-paced, extremely competitive. It's nothing compared to a government job," she winks. "Believe me, I've tried it. Which is why I came back to the private sector and started up Sail." She adds that a lot of Emiratis are actively trying to get into the private sector, across several fields. "So, don't believe those surveys about Emiratis wanting cushy government jobs!"

LOCAL TO GLOBAL: Arwa and Munil were among a group of students from Dubai Women's College that travelledto Singapore in 2011 to gain insights into global financial systems

When Iman first joined Emaar, she was instantly the poster child for Emirati women in the workplace - and not in the positive way she expected. "So here I am. Emirati. Woman. And obviously everyone's like, 'She's not really interested in computer stuff', 'she's going to be the first person to leave for the day' - but God knows [and eventually the people I worked with] how many nights I stayed until past midnight - and 'she's just here to fill the Emirati quota'. It was really disheartening, and you have to work doubly hard to prove them wrong. She waited weeks before she was given any meaningful tasks, but eventually rose to become a systems manager.
"By the way," she points, animatedly, "being a Hijabi, is even worse. Men feel it's easier to approach women who don't have their hair covered or are not wearing an abaya, so they naturally stayed away from me. Not only do you have to work extra hard, you have to be human enough for them to feel like they enjoy working with you. Being a woman is a whole other problem! In a male-dominated field, that brings its own challenges and you have to work extra hard and keep yourself updated all the time."

But she did it, and shut them right up. Today, Sail is in its fifth year, with a digital publishing arm and a bunch of awards, including an Arab Woman Award for literature.
But it's not like she hasn't come across the same stereotyping even after all the accolades. "I still get asked the usual 'Why are you working?' question. First of all, we're not all rich!" she explodes. "Some of us are, but some of us have to work for a living. I'm working for the money! Things aren't cheap. And when we do work, we have to really prove ourselves to fight against the stereotypes we have against us."
Iman does admit, though, that there are some who play out their stereotypical roles to a T; and that it makes the whole thing more convoluted. "Plus," she says, "we're a very small portion of the population, so it's also very easy to be misrepresented."
Living the lifestyle
"You, being here with three Emirati women is totally fine," says Arwa Harqoos, reassuringly. "We're allowed to sit and have casual chats with men, you know?"
It's not that I feared for my life, but I did explain that it's rare to see unrelated men sitting amidst a group of Emirati women. Arwa dispels any air of stereotyping and breaks the ice by introducing herself and her gal pals, Munil and Issam, saying, "Well, this is us. This is how we dress and this is how we meet up and hang out with our friends."
As the treasury controller for Emirates Airlines - "It's a tough job, but I love it," she beams - she's used to a multicultural work environment. She says she hasn't really come across any overt stereotyping at work, but she seems to know all about them. "Stereotyping really doesn't help what we are trying to achieve here, which is a unified, happy society. In Arabic, we have a saying that even the fingers on your hands are of a different length. And I think that's very apt for those who try to put other people into boxes, because they think or hear of something that may not even be remotely true."
Munil Abdullah, who works as a senior teller at a bank, chimes in that it's not particularly easy being in finance as an Emirati woman (which, I soon discovered, is the sector all these women worked in). "When I first joined, I was given simple tasks because they thought that I was a 'typical' Emirati, whatever that means. But I worked hard to prove that I can do more. I think that the workplace stereotype is really tough to crack."
It's the mentality that people have, she says, referring to comments like, 'She's local, so she can do whatever she wants.' "But our contracts are exactly the same! If I don't come on time or don't clock in, I lose my pay, because we're all the same when it comes to work. We're not all lazy, we don't all drive flashy cars and we are not all royals," she laughs.
She adds that it's not just the Western or Asian expats, but the Arabs also that stereotype Emiratis. "They think that I'm local, that I cannot - and will not - do any work, and so, don't expect anything from me. They think all Emiratis are rich, and drive around in fancy cars." And then she drops the ball: "I have a Honda Civic," and her friends laugh. "When my colleagues saw my car, they were surprised. They said, 'But you're local, so you should have a Mercedes, no?'" She divulges that even her family has suggested that she change her car, saying things like 'We cannot go out with you in your car' or 'It's not the right image' and so on. "I have to pay for it, and I'm not going to take out a big loan and be in debt!" she says, to laughs all around.
The other stereotype she begins to break down is that of the spoilt, pampered Emirati woman, which, if you've read so far, is already on its last threads. "Even if we were to stay at home and be lazy, it's not like we just get money for our expenses. When we went to school, we didn't get Dh1,000 to spend every day. We were lucky if we got Dh5! We have to work for what we want, and we were taught that by our parents, who also worked really hard to make something of themselves."
Issam, who is a compliance manager for Takaful insurance and is part of an elite team on the anti-money laundering wing, agrees with Munil, and takes a more serious tone. "Let me start by saying that some of those stereotypes are true. I mean, there are people who do these things and perpetuate the stereotype. But a majority of the Emiratis are not like that. People see a few Emiratis behave badly and think that's how we all are, but that's just the worst type of stereotyping," says the mother of two.
She too was first made aware of the stereotypes against Emirati women when she started work. "My first job as an accountant was the first time I was really interacting with expats (my schooling was with locals only). Immediately, I could see they had preconceived notions about me as the Emirati lady in the office. Even in my interview, they thought that I was just there to fulfil the Emirati quota. They were visibly surprised when they saw I had a high GPA, was a hard worker and so on. When I joined, initially, I wasn't given much work as they didn't expect me to do anything. I was still in college, I got married, I had my first kid, but I was still staying late, sitting with the auditors, doing whatever was needed. I think they were all really surprised."
She says she doesn't really need to work, but that there are some important lessons to be learnt from getting out there. "I realised that I need to have my own money and work experience, and prove to myself and my family that I need to support myself and not rely on anyone else. Most importantly, I want to teach my kids those values. Just like my mom and dad taught me."
Munil adds it is true Emiratis are very well taken care of. "We do get healthcare, education, pensions and so many other things from the government." And that's why the obvious question of why they need to work comes up so often.
The other thing she's keen on addressing is the myth that Emiratis are forced to dress a certain way or act a certain way in public. "That's not true either. I can take off my sheila and abaya, and wear regular clothes, and no one would say anything. I wear it because I want to wear it. It's also not true that we're not allowed to go out or mingle with friends." She alludes to our ice breaker, saying it's OK for them to be in my presence. "But, again, when we're with our more conservative relatives or friends, we have to follow the customs. And that's totally normal. Other ethnicities and cultures do that too," says Munil. "We don't all have arranged marriages, since we're talking about stereotypes. We can choose to marry who we want. Nothing is forced on us. And when we tell other people that, they're often really surprised that we can do that. You have to realise that some of the families are old-fashioned. But that doesn't mean we're all like that."
 The New Face of Emiratis
Aida al Busaidy is just as charming and boisterous as the other women in this stereotype-crushing tale. She's the senior manager of PR and communications for the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM) and her office is filled with action plans on whiteboards and travel magazines. "When I first started working, I wanted to take over the world," she says. "But all my eagerness was quashed when I was given menial tasks like faxing - 15 years ago, we still had fax machines - and making calls."
She says she put it down to being part of the learning curve. "Sort of like when you join a sorority... only they weren't using any of my skills (I'm trilingual), my education or abilities. Then, one day, everything changed. We had to put together a proposal for a project and I just drafted one out and left it on her desk, without signing my name on it. When my boss found out that it was me who wrote it, she was shocked."
Things took off for Aida from there and she began to display several signs of (supposed) un-Emirati-ness. "I worked weekends, Eid, late hours, all the things that people don't think Emiratis do. Sometimes, my parents asked what it was that I did that kept me tied up in the office for so long. But, eventually, they realised that that's what PR is like."
Aida went from PR to working as a columnist, a stint in TV, and jumped from sector to sector in PR before finally finding her calling and settling with DCTCM. But the one question she always encountered wasn't how she did it all - she got married and is now a mother of two boys, aged three and nine months - but why. "That's a strange question and I never understood it; this idea that, just because we're Emirati women, we don't have to work. My mother-in-law used to carry baggage when she worked at the Dubai airport way back when. My mom worked too and my dad's an engineer, and we were used to hard work. My parents taught me that that was the way forward." She says that it has helped her value all that she has even more now and that's a lesson she wants to pass on to her boys.
"If the stereotypical Emirati is lazy, then we would not have a lot of things we have here today. I think it has changed from 15-20 years ago. And that's the new face of Emiratis. When I graduated, there were so many barriers, which reinforced the stereotypes, because we were constantly told we couldn't do this and that - can't go out, can't work with male colleagues, can't work late, can't do this and that job. It was difficult. All of that has changed now - but the stereotypes remain," says Aida.
rohit@khaleejtimes.com 

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