Hamida Ghafour 
The National

Emirati women are at the forefront of change and progress in the region. In nearly every field including business, education, the arts and medicine women are taking on important roles and becoming decision-makers. ??They are running companies, raising money for charities, fighting for abused women and promoting the arts. There are now five women appointed to the Cabinet. Abu Dhabi recently got its first ever female judge and two female prosecutors. Most are also full-time mothers, fulfilling their roles in a traditional Muslim society. ??A visit to the Dubai campus of the Higher Colleges of Technology offers a glimpse of the future, as hundreds of young women stream out of the classrooms. It is a scene that would have been unimaginable 30 years ago: an all-female school dedicated to giving Emirati women an education in subjects such as information technology and business. ??The college seems to underscore two components necessary for women to achieve equality: a system in which education for all is a priority, and a booming economy that can fund the schools and provide job opportunities for its graduates. ??Ebba Abdon, a research associate at Insead, an organization in Abu Dhabi which conducts studies into women and leadership in the region, said that the GCC is leading progress. ??“Economic development is bringing change and that happens everywhere in the world. If you want to look at the larger picture in the West, industrialization and the two World Wars brought women into the workforce,” she said. ??The emancipation of women here is especially striking when compared with other women in the region.

Sharla Musabih
Human Rights Activist
Age: 47

To some she is a savior to others she is a rabble rouser who thrives on controversy, no matter, Sharla Musabih has had the single biggest impact on the plight of abused woman in the country.
As a young girl growing up in America, she volunteered to help teenage mothers by cooking for them and washing their laundry. Today she provides them shelter and legal help. At least three times a day she receives texts or phone calls form expatriate and Emirati women facing physical and emotional abuse. There have been few places for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking to turn to and Musabih’s City of Hope shelter in Dubai has forced many to pay attention.

“People say to me, ‘why do you want to do this? It is so depressing’. No one wants to talk about it, “ says the mother of six.

Several years ago, helped compile a huge report on the abuses suffered by child camel jockeys which eventually helped lead to a ban on the practice.

Despite her efforts she is sometimes accused of being a spy or simply of airing dirty laundry. Recent press reports have gone as far as accusing her of profiting from her wards’ misery, in what she describes as a baseless personal attack by her detractors. Nonetheless, her supporters say, her work must go on.