Malala and the principles that guide us all

Michael Garin, the chief executive of Image Nation, says the UAE shares Malala’s values. Fatima Al Marzooqi / The National

It is fitting that the documentary feature film He Named Me Malala was developed and produced by Parkes MacDonald, a partner company of Abu Dhabi-based Image Nation. The values and principles for which Malala nearly gave her life mirror those of Abu Dhabi and the UAE, which continues to support her and her tireless efforts to empower women through equal access to education for the 65 million girls to which it is currently denied. For Abu Dhabi and the UAE, these values were established long before the nation was founded.

Three major initiatives have set in motion a transformational effort that will have profound effects for decades to come: the empowerment of women and the nation’s commitment to education are long-standing. The more recent introduction of national service is already having a similar impact. Interestingly, each of these has historic parallels in the development of the United States after the Second World War and gives cause for great optimism for the UAE’s long-term future.

More than half a century ago, the devastation of war in Europe and Asia was rapidly followed in the US by unprecedented social change through the experiences and policies of the time.

First, the women who had kept the factories working while their husbands and brothers fought overseas would no longer accept their traditional pre-war roles and their newfound independence transformed America both socially and economically.

Secondly, the GI Bill of rights allowed millions of returning veterans to gain a college education, something that had previously been out of reach.

And finally, the US president Harry Truman’s order to racially integrate the American armed forces profoundly accelerated the process of desegregation.

The UAE, driven by an enlightened and committed leadership beginning with Sheikh Zayed, has unleashed similar forces that will propel the society to diversify from a resource-based economy to one that is knowledge-based. As with the US postwar transitions referenced above, the initial steps may be incremental in nature, but the long-term consequences will be profound.

Today, more than 60 per cent of the UAE’s college graduates are women. They are assuming roles that their mothers could not have conceived of playing. They enter the workforce determined to demonstrate that they are worthy of the opportunities they have been given and bring new force not just to enterprises, but to public and social life as well.

It’s inspiring to work here and witness these changes and to anticipate the future it will bring.

With 25 per cent of the UAE’s total spending going to education, literacy is close to a staggering 95 per cent. College and advanced degree holders – comprised of more women than men - are the new fuel that is powering the UAE. Leadership in alternative energy technology, aerospace, media and other fields would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago.

National service, introduced a little more than a year ago, is having an immediate impact on national unity, the sense of national duty, and greater social cohesion. The vertical nature of the UAE’s historical tribal tradition is now strengthened by the horizontal effects of people from all seven Emirates and from different social and economic classes coming together to serve their country. With an expatriate community made up of citizens of more than 200 countries and every religion living side by side, this evolution continues to unfold.

The UAE is far from a perfect society. But with the commitment of the nation’s leadership and the determination of its citizens to seize a unique historical moment, the UAE gives the world hope that a better future is possible for us all.

Michael Garin is the chief executive of Image Nation