Zayed Festival showcases creativity of Emirati women

In a bid to support women’s small businesses, the Khalifa Foundation and Abu Dhabi Business Women Council nominated and elected 100 women to showcase their work at the Zayed Festival for Heritage.

An Emirati woman who launched a business selling traditional goods makes a sale at the Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival. Mona Al Marzooqi / The National

Abu Dhabi // Ancient-looking booths made of straw, some shaped like old houses, fill a massive outdoor exhibition space at the Zayed Festival for Heritage.

Those tending the stalls are Emirati “creativists”, who launched their own businesses selling traditional items.

Their wares include everything from dresses and perfume to oud, canes and antiques.

In a bid to support women’s small businesses, the Khalifa Foundation and Abu Dhabi Business Women Council nominated and elected 100 such women to showcase their work without rental charges.

Fatima Al Ghafli, the owner of Oshia fashion for girls, was busy showing off her creativity through the design of traditional dresses at her booth. Priced between Dh300 and 600, the dresses are usually bought for occasions such as National Day, school festivities and bridal parties.

“My work is high quality and simple,” she said as she showed off a dress made of delicate chiffon and decorated with lace.

“I did a creative move as you can see, the dress is divided in different fabrics from different colours.”

Ms Al Ghalfi’s designs proved to be a hit and she was asked to design pharaonic themed dresses for a play at Al Ain American School.

In the neighbouring booth, Um Ali Al Shamsi, 45, said such exhibitions provided an opportunity for showingoff their products, attracting new customers and meeting interesting people.

Since the 12-day festival opened at Al Wathba on Monday, both women have sold a few items.

Ms Al Shamsi’s Arabic perfume, oud, canes and other local items can be found at her small shop in Al Zafarana souq in Al Ain, given to her six years ago by the Government.

Trade is busy there, but she hopes for more traditional exhibitions such as this one.

“Two years ago, during the midyear holiday, they let us exhibit at Al Hili park for 15 days,” Ms Al Shamsi said.

“It was great. All the children were on holiday and there was so much traffic, we sold much more than usual days at the souq.

“But last year they did not open. We called for it to open this year, so the families and children can be entertained and we will benefit.”

Mrs Al Ghafli was limited to showcasing her dresses at home before she was given a shop at Al Zafarana souq four years ago.

“Our licence says ‘mubdeaa’ (creativist). We are not allowed to open shops and hire staff, we just operate our businesses from home,” she said.

“So back then I went to talk to Sanaa Al Ghafli, head of Al Ain Business Women Council, to give us discounts in exhibitions.”

Luckily, Mrs Al Ghafli went at a time when two shops had just become available at the souq, and she was offered one of them.

On display beside her booth were her sister Afra’s abaya designs.

She demonstrated the high-quality fabrics and innovative designs of the garments, which mostly ost more than Dh1,000.

“We usually sell these at bridal shows, and since we were selected for the festival we brought them here,” she said.

One of her designs was even mistaken for the Expo logo.

She had presented an abaya to Fatima Al Jaber, chairwoman of the business women’s council, who wore it to the inauguration of the festival.

“Look at the shape of the logo – it is similar to that of Expo, so everyone thought it was special for the occasion,” she said.