The first Emirati female teacher

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 1960s, it was extremely rare for women in what is now the United Arab Emirates to go to school. At the time the future country was a collection of Emirates under British protection. The Trucial states, as they were known, were run by Sheikhs. The Sheikdoms were acutely traditional societies. This is the story of a young woman who was among the first to graduate from high school. She went on to become the first teacher there. Nama bint Majid Al Qasimi, has been telling Farhana Haider about her trailblazing experience.

Image: Nama bint Majid Al Qasimi with her students at Fatima Al Zahra School, Sharjah, 1970. Credit: Shaikha Nama bint Majid bin Saqr Al Qasimi

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Hello, you're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:48.0	I'm Frahana Heitha.
0:50.0	And today we're going back to the 1960s and the story of a young woman who was among the first from what became known as the United Arab Emirates to graduate from high school.
1:01.0	She went on to become the first teacher there and at a time when it was
1:05.4	extremely rare for women to even go to school. The country was then a collection of Emirates under British protection.
1:21.0	The Great Arabian Subcontinent is bounded on the north by the Persian or Arab Gulf.
1:28.0	On its southern shore, there are a series of seven small Emirates.
1:32.0	They were separately bound by treaty with Britain in
1:34.9	1853. They were known as the Trucial States. The Trucial States were
1:41.1	run by Shakes. Their Shakedoms were acutely traditional societies.
1:48.0	They were politically and economically underdeveloped and had been a trading hub for centuries as this BBC archive from the
1:56.1	early 1970s explains.
1:59.2	The Portuguese came to this coast in the 16th century. Trade passed from Persia and the old India along this
2:05.8	coast and sometimes by caravan over its deserts. The British took control from India, regulated the seas for their safety and
2:16.9	convenience, left the shakes to their own ways.
2:20.9	In the 1950s and 60s, amongst the most developed of the Trucial States was Sharjah.
	...

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