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Breaking the glass ceiling
There's something special about Khadeeja Al Marzooqi.
- PUBLISHED: Fri 2 Dec 2011, 9:08 PM UPDATED: Tue 9 Jul 2024, 12:39 PM
She oozes confidence with her winning smile. Perhaps it's the way she puts you at ease as we settle down for the interview at the DMI office near Maktoum Bridge.
Despite her position as the general manager of Noor Dubai Radio, her attitude is pretty much down-to-earth and her laughter infectious - far from cliches and stereotypes. Her simplicity conceals her strength of character - and the fact that she holds a senior position. Optimistic and ambitious, this young lady speaks her mind in a candid, no-holds-barred interview.
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She says, “I travelled halfway around the world to the Gold Coast in Australia for higher education. It was my first experience staying away from family. It changed my understanding of the world and I learnt how to deal with people. Those 18 months taught me to be independent, to go out of my comfort zone and evolve as a person.”
Khadeeja feels that girls are smarter than boys and the number of female graduates in the UAE are thrice the number of male graduates. “My biggest challenge was at work. Our society is male-dominated, so women have to prove themselves in every step of their career. Some male bosses feel very protective while some feel threatened,” she adds honestly.
Khadeeja admits that working in the media is no cakewalk. “At a radio station you have to be alert 24/7. You never know what will happen. Something may go wrong with the transmission or there may be a technical error and you could go off the air.”
About her career choice, she says, “I chose my career because I love history and geography and reading newspapers. I grew up reading Al Bayan and would use my pocket money to buy the newspaper. I was going to study journalism but when I discovered radio and television, I was more excited. I studied these subjects for four years. We had a lot of projects to work on and it was never boring.”
Khadeeja does not hesitate when she speaks about her role model. “My role model is Oprah Winfrey. I feel that she is genuine and transparent with her audience and her career. I want to make the kind of change that she has made. I would love to be like her.”
Heading the organising committee of the Shaikh Majed Youth Media Award, she was there from Day 1 and put the whole concept together. “The Award aims to find talented locals interested in media, empower them, and give them the desired window and exposure. We had to select 10 Emirati talents from thousands of applicants. Media is a good way to represent oneself. Our biggest challenge is to emiratise this sector and go forward.”
Speaking about her personal life, she says, “To be honest with you, for the first six to seven years I had no personal life. Maybe that is the price you have to pay to convince your bosses that you are committed to the job. Now I try to balance my work and personal life by giving my family some time. I indulge in small commitments such as meeting college friends once every month. And as a manager, I teach my team members to solve problems and come to me only when I am needed. I make them learn from their mistakes.”
Khadeeja wants the media sector in the UAE to be the best. “We have immense support from our leadership. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, asks us to talk freely about our problems and even identify people not doing their job. We have this morning show by the name of Mubasher where we have people calling in and airing their grievances, for example, about the RTA or Health Ministry. My job is to listen to them and talk to the relevant government departments and find out why it happened. We do hear a lot of complaints. There are some officials from the government departments who listen to the programme and take action to solve the problems of the people. It is a sort of open communication between the radio station, government and society. Such programmes empower people. Media that changes for the best changes peoples' lives.”
Khadeeja reminisces about the changing role of women. “If I am not mistaken, when I started in 2000 there were only two presenters on the radio but no one on TV. My family was supportive and understanding and they trusted me. Some felt it was kind of a shameful pursuit for a woman and not acceptable. In this aspect, there has been a marked change and progress. Local ladies are shooting their own movies. It took us 10 years but we did it.”
She continues, “All this is because Shaikh Mohammed was supportive of women, supportive of Shaikha Lubna being the first minister, supportive of Mariam Al Roumi and a lot of ladies out there. Some men supported women because they believed in it while some men did it because the leadership was doing it. Both ways, women benefited. That gave us a great push. Now society has accepted us. We have national women working as nurses and local presenters on radio and television. We even have five to six moviemakers and photographers as well.”
Khadeeja says that she would like to see changes in two sectors namely - education and health - as one educates you for the future while the other keeps you alive for the future. “In the education sector we have made a lot of progress but more needs to be done. In the health sector, regarding services, quality of hospitals and manpower, we need more local doctors and nurses and more accessibility for people,” she points out.
Speaking about women, Khadeeja says that women are good at multi-tasking and can do well in business while managing house and family. “In several UAE households, women run the house and pay the bills. The Sheikh Mohammed Establishment for Young Leaders empowers men and women to have their own business and earn a livelihood.”
Elaborating on the understanding between the East and the West, she says: “There should be an understanding from both sides. There are bad examples everywhere - but that does not make all people bad. Progress is all about education. When we read, see and understand, then it is not so easy to manipulate people. One has to ask the right questions. The UAE is safe and we can have our family here. There is security and opportunity. This is an open environment and I am proud of my country, my democracy and the National Council. We do have our own democracy, our communication with our leaders and ministers. This is our way. We have freedom, security and belief in the human race.”
suchitra@khaleejtimes.com