With UAE fighter jets in the skies over Syria, bombing ISIL targets, few will doubt the hard power of the Emirates. But the fighter pilot who led the UAE’s mission is also an example of the country’s soft power.
The story of Major Mariam Al Mansouri, the first female Emirati Air Force pilot, has well and truly gone global. Television news stations across the United States, as well as newspapers in Europe and media in as far afield as Russia and Australia carried the story in the past few days, as well as trending online. Many referenced the story – first told by the UAE’s ambassador to Washington Yousef Al Otaiba – that when US forces contacted the UAE’s mission in the skies over Syria, they were so surprised to hear a female voice that there was 20 seconds of radio silence.
Maj Al Mansouri is not merely an example of the importance Arab countries place on the fight with ISIL. At a time when so few stories that don’t involve war come out of the region, hers is a way to communicate the immense contribution that women in the Arab world make, on the battlefield, in government, in the arts and in offices up and down the UAE and the entire region.
