At the age of 22, Emirati scientist Dr Shaikha Al Dhaheri was told that perhaps her place was no longer in the field.
It was the year 2000 and at that time, she was often the only woman on expeditions that took her deep into Abu Dhabi’s desert, along its coastline and into wetlands that scientists were only beginning to fully document.
The work meant leaving at sunrise, crossing dunes in four-wheel drive vehicles and sometimes camping for days in remote areas.
But it was not the harsh terrain that threatened to stop her.
“The culture was not ready to have a female field scientist,” Dr Al Dhaheri told The National. “There was a lot of talk about the need for women not to be working in the field. I couldn’t accept it. I believed my place was in the field.”
Her solution was to ask for another female scientist to be recruited to accompany her.
“To my mind, I had the support of my family and the support of leadership, therefore I should continue, because I didn’t see anything wrong with being a female field scientist.”
More than a quarter of a century later, Dr Al Dhaheri is Secretary General of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi.
Her journey from the only woman on those early expeditions to leading the agency reflects the transformation she has witnessed in opportunities for Emirati women.
As the UAE marks Emirati Women’s Day, her story is also about being someone who has helped to make that progress possible and the responsibility of today’s women to make the path wider for those who follow.
Learning about her country
Dr Al Dhaheri was born in Abu Dhabi into a family rooted in Al Ain, where her parents and grandparents farmed.
She remembers as a child walking through the family garden, talking to plants and wondering what would happen if she irrigated them with different liquids.
“I believe at the time there was a scientist in me which wasn’t discovered,” she said.
She enrolled in civil engineering at UAE University before switching to agricultural science after 18 months.
After graduating, she was offered work as a nutritionist but then a friend persuaded her to visit what was then the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency.
Hearing about its research and work to understand Abu Dhabi’s environment changed her mind. “That was the spark,” she said.
She joined in 2000 as an assistant researcher, one of relatively few Emiratis working in a field then staffed largely by experienced expats.
Among those she remembers working with and learning from were the late Peter Hellyer, Mark Beech, Christopher Drew and John Newby.
“I was among [the] few Emiratis who understood clearly that we should remain in this field because it was still young at the time and required many of us to learn from experienced expats who were fulfilling these roles,” Dr Al Dhaheri said.
But she also understood that Emiratis ultimately had to become custodians of the sector.
“There is no one who would care more about this land than the Emiratis themselves,” she said.
Dr Al Dhaheri arrived with the confidence that being Emirati meant she understood the landscape she was being asked to study.
“I thought: I’m part of the desert. I know everything,” she said. Then came a humbling realisation. “I realised that I knew just a little.”
She collected water samples at Al Wathba, where scientists were trying to understand why flamingos were struggling to breed successfully.
She helped to map Abu Dhabi’s coastline, walking into the water to classify mangroves, salt marshes and sandy beaches.
Other expeditions took her towards Umm Al Zamul and the Empty Quarter. Teams would leave at sunrise, work until sunset and then set up camp.
Vehicles sometimes rolled over in the dunes and needed to be rescued. Yet she remembers those years fondly.
“Every time I stepped in the car to go on a field trip, I knew that I would be learning something different, and I would see something new,” she said.
Family support
Dr Al Dhaheri's father was one of her earliest champions.
“This is a new field. My country needs someone like you to start working in the environment,” she remembers him telling her.
Her mother worried about her daughter disappearing into the desert for days, but her father’s support helped give her the confidence to continue.
When Dr Al Dhaheri married in 2004, that support continued through her husband.
While pursuing further studies in Britain, he would drive for hours to accompany her on fieldwork and help her to collect data.
“There were many times when I was so tired that I cried,” she said. “He said: ‘OK, you take a rest, and I will continue to take your data and come back.’”
When her marriage contract was signed, she said, her father had one condition: that her husband promised she would continue her higher education.
“I have a lot of appreciation towards men around me who made my journey possible and successful,” she said.
Founding Father's legacy
Dr Al Dhaheri traces the foundations of her opportunities further back – to the UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Mother of the Nation.
Sheikh Zayed’s environmental vision remains a guiding influence on her career. “He influenced every one of us,” she said.
She recalls the story of experts telling Sheikh Zayed that greening the UAE was impossible – an idea he refused to accept.
“When the facts tell you of a certain limitation, even though it’s a fact, probably you have to take another risk to try,” she said.
That vision can be seen in the UAE’s early mangrove planting and restoration efforts, which began under Sheikh Zayed. But Dr Al Dhaheri sees an equally important legacy in the opportunities created for Emirati women.
“The Emirati woman today is really a lucky and a proud Emirati because they always had received the support, one from the late Sheikh Zayed, and also the immense and unwavering support from Her Highness Sheikha Fatima,” she said.
Both, she said, recognised women as partners in building the nation.
“They didn’t spare anything in supporting women since the early ’70s – from education, from health, from integrating women into the workplace.”
Emirati women today
More than 25 years after Dr Al Dhaheri found herself the only woman on those field expeditions, she sees a markedly different landscape.
“I wanted to break the male domination in this field,” she said. “Today, the females have very transformational opportunities and support because the system is more mature.
“The opportunities are more available. The community and the culture are very much supportive for women to be in the field in a very difficult and harsh environment.”
At Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, she now sees women seeking careers as scientists, divers and climate change policymakers – roles that would have been unusual when she joined.
“I’m proud that I was able to open the doors for many scientists, women who are part today of the workforce. This would not be possible without the trust of our chairman, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, who believed in what we were trying to achieve and gave us the opportunity to move forward.”
But greater opportunity, she believes, brings greater responsibility.
“The woman is well supported, and for that they have a big responsibility,” she said.
Her generation must now “broaden the path for the ones to come after us”, acting as role models and mentoring young women so they are ready to take their places.
“When I see young female scientists or those who work in technology-based workplaces, I feel very proud,” she said.
‘Unleash these capabilities’
For Dr Al Dhaheri, becoming stronger does not mean simply celebrating how far Emirati women have come, but asking how much further they can go.
“We are a nation that always wants to be strong, and also want to be ready,” she said.
“We have never accepted to be at a certain level, but each level we arrive or land into, the next step for us [is] to beat that baseline and to become better and to become stronger.”
Her message to Emirati women today is to recognise the potential they may not yet realise they possess.
“All of us have hidden powers inside us, but many of those powers many times are not discovered,” she said.
“So each one of you needs to really unleash these capabilities, these powers, and with these capabilities and powers, the achievement will be definitely bigger, and the ambition will be stronger or even bigger.”
For the woman who once refused an instruction to stay behind a desk, progress has meant ensuring the next generation does not have to fight the same battle.
And more than two decades after she insisted her place was in the field, Dr Al Dhaheri now wants Emirati women following her to go further than she did.
