WEDNESDAY 30
Arts and crafts
The Traditional Handicrafts Festival returns to Al Ain’s Al Qattara Souq from today. Now in its sixth edition, the popular annual handicrafts platform promotes the heritage crafts of the UAE, helping to support the industry and preserve these invaluable facets of Emirati identity.
In the last couple of days I’ve had the pleasure and the pressure of reviewing three Bollywood movies at the cinemas. While one in particular was insufferably crude, sexist and blatantly misogynistic, (no prizes for guessing which one we are talking about here!), I still sat through attentively for 2 and a half hours, buoyed by reactions from the 10-15 odd people sat along with me, some of whom were clearly enjoying the proceedings much more than me.
I’m partly bemused and mostly accepting that what can seem like a snooze-fest for some might be the most entertaining thing to happen for another - it is this difference of opinion that makes cinema so unifying as well as polarising.
The Duchess of Sussex’s recent confession about how “challenging” and “vulnerable” she felt in her role as a woman and a new mum is again something that has polarised people. When women are fighting for gender parity and for an equal size of the corporate pie, very often it comes at a huge emotional cost, which it ideally shouldn’t.
On our cover we feature Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, two powerful women in Hollywood who come together for a timely new series that tackles issues like gender disparity and workplace harassment.
It’s the Festival of Lights today. And we believe there can be no better place than this bustling city of lights to celebrate a sparkling Diwali!
Have a great week ahead!