Abu Dhabi environment chief challenges stereotypes and sets sights on global role
When it comes to stereotypes, the experiences of women around the world depend on a host of variables, such as their background, cultural setting and industry.
Most stereotypes are based on a lack of knowledge.
A top Emirati government leader spoke of the gender stereotypes she and other Arab women faced on the international stage.
Razan Al Mubarak, the first woman to serve as secretary general of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, is campaigning to become president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The organisation is responsible for the Red List of Threatened Species, a comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of animal and plant species.
Ms Al Mubarak is running against two other people and the election will be held in September.
If successful, she will become the first Arab woman to lead the organisation and only the second woman to be president since the group was established about 75 years ago.
It will also be the latest in a long list of personal firsts for Ms Al Mubarak over the course of her 20-year career.
Speaking to The National on International Women’s Day, she said female empowerment was a journey and challenging stereotypes was a duty.
Ms Al Mubarak, 41, said she was often asked whether she encountered stereotypes in her work.
“I can honestly say that I wasn’t stereotyped. Maybe I was too young and too naive to recognise that I had been stereotyped early in my career,” she said.
“But I am hearing more stereotypes internationally now that I am campaigning than I ever had in the UAE.
“Perhaps now that I am campaigning, I am struck more by the residual stereotype of an Arab woman. It has been a great privilege to be able to turn this on its head.”
Ms Al Mubarak, who is from Abu Dhabi, is one of many women working in science in the UAE.
Women account for more than half of UAE graduates who hold degrees in science, technology, engineering or maths.
Ms Al Mubarak said women lead four of the primary environmental organisations in the country: the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, Emirates Nature – World Wildlife Fund and the Emirates Environmental Group.
Not only that, but half the members of the Federal National Council and a third of the Cabinet are women.
Women in the UAE fare better than most of their peers in terms of equal pay, Ms Al Mubarak said.
“According to the World Economic Forum, the UAE ranks second in wage equity. So you see we have made all of these strides in gender equity,” she said.
“And what I want to say – especially since we are such a transient population, with people coming for two years and perhaps not recognising – is that actually this movement started way before these modern times, with the establishment of the country.”
Her father, Khalifa Al Mubarak, served as the UAE’s ambassador to France from 1980 until his death on February 8, 1984, when he was assassinated outside his Paris apartment.
The Arab Revolutionary Brigades claimed responsibility for the killing. The group also claimed it was responsible for blowing up Gulf Air Flight 771 from Karachi to Abu Dhabi in 1983, killing 112 passengers and crew.
Ms Al Mubarak has childhood memories of taking part in programmes created by the General Women’s Union, which was founded in 1974 by Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Mother of the Nation.
“What they were doing then was investing in social infrastructure to ensure that we go through this cultural revolution understanding that we will not be able to successfully develop if we do not empower women,” Ms Al Mubarak said.
“It’s thanks to this sort of consistent and institutionalised vision from the earliest, from the Founding Fathers and Mothers of the UAE, that we are now reaping the benefits.”
Ms Al Mubarak’s own rise to prominence started 20 years ago, after she returned from the US with a degree in environmental studies and international relations.
She was driving in the capital when she spotted a sign for the Environment Research and Wildlife Development Agency, which preceded the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.
Ms Al Mubarak said she walked into the office and asked to join the organisation.
She later established Emirates Nature – WWF, an affiliate of the global conservation organisation. She is now the managing director of the UAE group.
It had an urgent mission, to help protect the UAE’s environment from rapid development.
“It was a race against time. We didn’t have the experience,” she said.
“We didn’t necessarily have the legislation to begin, but the development was happening so quickly.
“So you really had to be innovative and catch up and continuously engage with others.”
In 2008, she became the founding managing director of the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund.
It provides targeted grants for thousands of grass-roots conservation projects around the world.
In 2011, Ms Al Mubarak became the first woman to serve as secretary general of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi. Seven years later, she was promoted to its board of directors, a position she still holds.
Many people would consider her to be a clear example of a successful woman. She also balances the demands of a busy career with the responsibilities of raising her four-yearold daughter.
But this description makes her uncomfortable.
“It seems to be a little bit, almost misleading, to say the successful woman is a working woman, and even better if she is a mother because she has to balance work and life,” Ms Al Mubarak said.
“I find that limiting. I think it’s important that we celebrate all types of women – working women, non-working women, mothers, single women.
“I have led an institution of 1,000 employees and then I became a mother afterwards.
“Motherhood is much more challenging than leading a 1,000-plus institution. And perhaps sometimes maybe we don’t necessarily celebrate that enough.”
According to the World Economic Forum, the UAE ranks second in wage equity. We have made strides in gender equity RAZAN AL MUBARAK Environment Agency Abu Dhabi