Tributes paid to doctor who served Dubai for more than 50 years

Dr Moawiyah Al Shunnar established the first private clinic in the emirate in the 1960s

Tributes were paid to Dr Muawiyah Al-Shannar, a Palestinian medic who died aged 87. Photo: Twitter

Tributes have been paid to a pioneer of private medicine in the UAE who established one of the nation’s first clinics in the early 1960s.

Funeral prayers were held on Tuesday at the Al Quoz Cemetery in Dubai for Dr Moawiyah Al Shunnar, a Palestinian medic who died aged 87.

Dr Shunnar served for more than 50 years as a doctor in the UAE and was married to Dr Zainab Karim, an Emirati gynaecologist reported to have successfully delivered more than 18,000 babies.

Raised and educated in the Palestinian city of Nablus, Dr Shunnar studied medicine in Egypt at Ain Shams University in Cairo before emigrating to Dubai to take a position at Al Kuwait Hospital in Deira.

He had four children, two sons Saleh and Omar, and two daughters Amal and Buthainah, both doctors.

Abdul Rahman Al Owais, Minister of Health and Prevention, paid tribute to Dr Shunnar, describing him as a role model for his medical work.

“Dr Shunnar spent more than half a century serving and treating people with complete sincerity and dedication,” he said.

The minister extended his heartfelt condolences to Dr Shunnar’s family, praying to Allah Almighty to rest his soul in eternal peace and grant his family patience and solace.

Dr Shunnar moved to work at a hospital in Ras Al Khaimah briefly, shortly after arriving in the UAE in the 1960s, before returning to Dubai to open the emirate's first private clinic.

Two years later, his wife resigned from the hospital where the couple first met to join him at the private clinic where they both continued to work.