Sport can reflect ambition and belief, but it can also be practical. For some, it provides structure or focus; for others, a way to test themselves or feel part of something. For athletes with disabilities, it can offer a space to compete and define success on their own terms.
Two women exploring those ideas were in Dubai this weekend for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, where they took part in a panel on Women Shaping Sport in the Middle East. They spoke about how pushing back against expectations has influenced their careers and their place in sport.
Fatima Al Bluoshi is a 31-year-old Emirati para dressage rider with spina bifida. She has limited use of her lower limbs, but has long approached sport with a focus on what is possible rather than what is not.
For years, riding felt out of reach. That began to change when she started training seriously at 21, a process that gradually reshaped how she saw herself and what she thought she could do.
“This is the sport I feel reflects who I am,” she said. “It has strength, it has calm.”
Al Bluoshi underwent official para-equestrian classification evaluation in the UK last summer, part of an initiative spearheaded by the Royal Stables in Abu Dhabi to develop a team of riders to qualify for the 2028 Paralympic Games.
She passed with flying colours, and was awarded Grade III status by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI). It means Al Bluoshi is now one step closer to realising her dream of representing the UAE at the Paralympics. “I trust that what is meant for me will happen,” she said.
Training is now a defining feature of her daily life, often extending to three or four hours a day, balanced around work commitments and long journeys between emirates. Riding, she explained, brings focus and energy.
“When I train with horses, I have incredible energy,” she said. “Even if I’m tired, I feel renewed.”
When reflecting on women’s participation in sport more broadly, she described physical activity as deeply restorative. “Sport in general is a beautiful thing. It brings psychological comfort. It heals the body and the soul. When you practice sport in any form, you feel happy. Your day becomes better.”
If Al Bluoshi’s journey centres on discovery, her fellow panellist, Dubai-based Jessica Smith, brings an equally compelling narrative of purpose and determination.
Born without part of her left arm, the former Paralympian spoke about sport as the first arena in which she began to challenge the expectations placed upon her and to assert control over her own narrative.
“I discovered a love for sport and I discovered that love of sport after being born, missing my left arm and wanting an opportunity to be able to prove the rest of the world wrong because I felt as though I was being limited in the social narrative around what people thought I could and couldn’t do because of the fact that I had a disability,” Smith told The National.
Swimming became the means through which she channelled that ambition. It offered structure, competition, and a sense of recognition that had previously felt out of reach. Smith recalled a defining moment at the age of 10, when she won her first school swimming race, an experience that reshaped how she understood ability and achievement.
“I realised that I was being celebrated for what I could do rather than being limited by the perceived assumptions of others about what they thought I couldn’t do, and that was when this love for wanting to compete and wanting to push the boundaries started to evolve.”
The Australian continues to work as a speaker and advocate for accessibility and inclusion, emphasising the importance of choice and autonomy in how those conversations are led.
“People with disability are allowed to be whoever they want to be,” she said. “It shouldn’t be the responsibility of everyone living with disability to constantly advocate.”
