Meet woman in viral UAE- Israel flag picture
Norah Al Awadhi reveals howshe became ‘ face’ of historic accord
Meet Norah Al Awadhi or “the girl from the picture of the UAE and Israeli flags in Dubai” as she describes herself on Twitter.
She was just “King Norah” on the social media platform till Emirati businessman- cum-writer Hassan Sajwani posted the photo of her and an Israeli woman — covered in their respective flags, holding their hands and facing Burj Khalifa from atop a skyscraper on October 6.
Within hours, the picture went viral and by that night, among the thousands who tweeted/ retweeted/ quote tweeted that photo were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ivanka Trump, daughter of and adviser to the US President Donald Trump.
“Exciting picture from Dubai. Peace for peace creates new friends in the Middle East,” Netanyahu posted while sharing the photo with the flag emojis of both the countries. Quote tweeting his post, Ivanka Trump wrote: “Great photo from Dubai.”
I told Ronny, don’t worry, let’s do it… I said those little words and held her hand. We went closer to the edge.”
Norah Al Awadhi | Emirati draped
Story behind the viral photo
Sharing the story behind the viral photo to Gulf News, Norah said she happened to be in the historic picture quite coincidentally.
“The woman holding the Israeli flag is Ronny, a travel blogger from Israel,” Norah said. “She was on a visit here and I was introduced to her by someone I know.” She said she had already started talking to people from Israel ever since the UAE first spoke about normalisation of ties with Israel.
Norah said she had met Ronny casually and that is when she asked if Norah could join her for a photo shoot she planned for her blog ‘ to make an impact’.
Norah readily agreed. But it was only when they reached the terrace of an 80- storey tower facing Burj Khalifa that both the women realised the risk they were taking for the shoot, she said. It was windy and they had to climb some steps and jump down a few to get on to the place that gave the perfect background of Burj Khalifa. “When we reached that place, my heart just fell out of my chest! We had the whole crew with us and the security approval. But I never knew I had the fear of heights till then. I had never felt so scared of heights even when I went to [ the observation deck in] Burj Khalifa. It was scary in that open space above 80 floors.”
Perfect shots
To her surprise, she realised that Ronny was also frightened of heights. “She didn’t want to take even one picture because she thought she was going to fall. But I had more guts to go with it and face my fear. I told myself — just do it. It is for a good purpose. I told Ronny, don’t worry, let’s do it. I said those little words and held her hand. We went closer to the edge. We stood there and she became confident enough.”
It took about half an hour for them to get the perfect shots of both of them facing Burj Khalifa with their backs draped in the flags. But when the pictures came out, Norah said she noticed that in one of them they were still holding hands and smiling looking at each other.
“It wasn’t staged. See, she trusted me,” she said.
‘ I am proud of myself’
Ever since her picture became viral, Norah said she has had many critics on social media, whom she is completely ignoring.
“People have asked me— you are getting a lot of hate, are you leaving social media? Nay!,” said Norah who calls herself ‘ King’ like the females who make a clear statement about notions of gender and power.
“I am proud of myself and what I did for my country. I want to create more things for my country. You have to have the guts to do it. And I was raised with that guts, thanks to my dad who is my biggest inspiration.”