Emirati nurse had her own fight before she served wounded warriors
▶ Prejudice failed to stand in the way of Atheja Ali Busaibah’s devotion to duty, writes Nawal Al Ramahi
Missing arms and legs were some of the most common injuries that Atheja Ali Busaibah, the Emirati who led the way for generations of nurses from her young country, would see among soldiers when she worked at Qasr El Eyni hospital in Egypt during the Arab-Israeli War of 1973.
She also had to overcome gender prejudice to help the wounded soldiers and civilians who were brought to her for care.
“In the past, social and patriarchal attitudes made it harder for women to join the workforce. Mothers who were looking for wives for their sons were looking at me differently. It was considered unacceptable to marry a working woman,” Ms Busaibah says.
“There is no easy path to success. I sacrificed being a mother, a wife and having a family of my own. I sacrificed it all for my ambition. But I have no regrets whatsoever.”
Ms Busaibah was trained in Kuwait Hospital in Dubai in 1962. She became the first Emirati nurse in 1969, while the foundations for the UAE were being laid beneath what was then the Trucial States.
“I did not study nursing at college. I was trained by doctors and nurses in the Kuwait Hospital,” she says.
Ms Busaibah, now 67, says her parents supported her in her choice of career. “My parents were educated and religious. They supported women’s roles in the workforce.”
Yet there was no easy path to success.
“Much has improved in recent years, because we have great leaders. We are not only government and people, we are a big family,” says Ms Busaibah, who is now retired.
She persisted and devoted her life to nursing. She broke a bone in a car accident while serving in Egypt, where she accompanied Sultan Ahmed Al Mulla, then Minister of Health.
“Treating the injured in a war zone demands passion, determination and the ability to work with diverse cultures,” she says. “Travelling to Egypt was very challenging. We took a flight from Dubai to Beirut, travelled to Benghazi in Libya by road and then to Egypt. The driver was not using the vehicle’s lights at all, fearing that they would be spotted by the enemy and be targeted by air strikes,” she says while flicking through photo albums.
Ms Busaibah, who was 22 at the time, handled a small operating room at Qasir Al Aini Hospital in Cairo.
“I helped in treating those who suffered from major injuries,” Ms Busaibah says.
But her work did not finish when the war was over, and she also worked on many humanitarian initiatives.
“I dedicated my life to my country by looking after those who suffered during the war, collecting donations for
There is no easy path to success. I sacrificed being a mother, a wife and having a family of my own. I sacrificed it all for my ambition. But I have no regrets whatsoever
Palestinians and establishing a blood bank at Kuwait hospital in Dubai,” she says.
Ms Busaibah was assigned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid, now Deputy Ruler of Dubai, on instructions from the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed, Ruler of Dubai at that time, to collect money from citizens of Dubai for the Palestinians to support them in their war.
“I went around people’s homes and collected money for the Palestinians,” she says.