Women join the club with course in Abu Dhabi
Ayesha Al Mansoori has helped to launch courses in Bedouin and western falconry, writes
When Ayesha Al Mansoori was four years old, she told her father she would be a falconer one day. Falcons are heavy for toddlers, so he bought her a small desert owl and taught her to earn the bird’s trust so it would eat from her hand.
“Sometimes I didn’t go to school and I’d go out to the desert with my father instead,” Ms Al Mansoori says. “If they told me they were going hunting, I’d tell them I would join them.”
As Ms Al Mansoori grew older, her brother told her it was time to leave falconry behind. But her father insisted she still had a lot to learn. Now, when her father buys a falcon, he turns to her for advice.
Popular with sheikhs and young men who eulogise their falcons on Instagram, falconry is a multimillion-dirham industry in the Gulf. It’s also a man’s world. Like camel racing, women are almost completely absent from this heritage sport.
Ms Al Mansoori wants to change this. Last year, she paired up with South African falconer Angelique Engels to teach women introductory courses in Bedouin and western falconry. Next month, they will begin women’s courses at Abu Dhabi Falconers Club.
Ms Al Mansoori had the idea years ago and twice applied for government funding to start a business.
“They told me no woman in the UAE has a falcon,” says Ms Al Mansoori, who owns two garmooshas, two sakers and a gyrfalcon named Agab.
Ms Al Mansoori’s dream was realised at the Abu Dhabi Falconers Club, and it now offers free classes for Emirati and expatriate women.
Ms Al Mansoori approached Ms Engels, whom she met at a Dubai hotel doing falconry demonstrations for guests. Ms Engels had come to Dubai via Bostwana, where she had used falconry in pest control.
The course provides women with all equipment, the use of the club’s falcons and more than 12 hours of introductory classes with Ms Al Mansoori and Ms Engels.
Classes were launched last year at the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition. There were 60 active members during the first season. More than half of the students were Emirati, many of whom were familiar with falconry, but had not had the chance to try it.
Fifty women have enrolled for the 2017-2018 season.
Ms Al Mansoori and Ms Engels will teach in English and Arabic, providing theoretical and practical tuition that includes history, hygiene, health, feeding and weight management, training and handling.
Students will learn how to repair broken feathers, what to do if a falcon gets too long in the beak or how to handle a falcon when it jumps.
Beginners will also train with 11 experienced falcons, as well as Ms Al Mansoori’s Agab, an eight-year-old gyr who flies to her at sight. “When I walk, she knows it’s me,” Ms Al Mansoori says, looking at Agab with affection. “She’s my friend, khalas.”
Agab’s calm nature makes her a popular bird for hooding practice. To prove the point, she plays an old video of her daughter Osha, seated in a pram and patting Agab’s hood.
Two weeks ago, Ms Engels was watching videos of her own “babies”, five nearly featherless chicks travelling from Europe to Abu Dhabi to join the women’s section.
“It’s very hard with falcons, because they don’t have facial expressions,” said Ms Engels said. “But they do have distinct personalities.”
Students can choose how much to interact with the falcons. Many progress from being wary of touching the bird to handling it with confidence.
Once the course is completed, students become club members and can regularly train with the club’s falcons. This is great for beginners because even a “starter” falcon costs at least Dh5,000.
There are classes for all ages. The youngest student is Ms Al Mansoori’s daughter Osha, 4, who is already adept at hooding the birds of prey.
Ms Al Mansoori has raised her daughter with falcons since infancy.
She shows one video of Osha, at 18 months, wandering towards her with a falconer’s glove in one hand and a hood in the other. Their desert trips inspired her to write a children’s book, Osha and Grandpa Matar.
Courses begin this month. Lessons run throughout the winter, for five consecutive days, Sunday to Thursday, or over two consecutive weekends.
The course provides women with the use of the club’s falcons and more than 12 hours of introductory classes