From Dubai with Love..

Hello ! My name is Hend and I am from the United Arab Emirates and particularly from Dubai. I live in a family with what I call liberal-conservative system. I call it liberal because I consider my family to be open minded compared to other families in Dubai. My family is open minded because they enrolled me in a mixed cultures and genders university. In Dubai, not all the universities are mixed. So, for a UAE family, it is unusual to let a girl study in such culture. Moreover, my mom is not a house wife, indeed she is working. In addition, my sister is working as well as a branch manager in a bank in Dubai. So, I think that my family is liberal because the woman is allowed to work in an environment that is surrounded by men. On the other hand, we are conservative because of some traditions that we cannot change in our culture. For example, wearing the Abaya is from our traditional customs. It is a black cover that has been developed from the time of our ancestors till nowadays. The Abaya is a symbol of the women’s respect of traditions and shyness. I am proud to be from the UAE because we as women have achieved a lot. In the UAE, the woman’s status has been changed now since ten years ago. Nowadays, the Emirati woman is a member of the Federal National Council (FNC) which is an honor for the Emirati women because she is the first woman among all the gulf countries to enter the FNC. Moreover, the Emirati woman is now having the position of being a minister to represent her country all over the world. We have approximately five female ministers in the country. Two of them are on the top ministries which are The Ministry of Trade and Economy and the other one is the Ministry of Social Affairs. So, it is a challenge for me as an Emirati girl to prove myself in such competitive culture. =)