Breaking boundaries: Five young Emirati female athletes tell us what it means to change the narrative
A recent panel at Middlesex University Dubai brought together Emirati sportswomen to discuss identity, ambition and the barriers they have faced, highlighting the funding, coaching and family support needed to help more girls enter sport and stay in it. Here’s what they told Gulf Business
19 October, 2026
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Zamzam Al Hammadi is 18. She is the UAE’s first female professional MMA fighter, and she says that also makes her the oldest Emirati woman in the sport.
I’m the oldest in MMA now. I’m 18 years old only,” she says. In 2023, the year she became a jiu-jitsu youth world champion, she recalls feeling isolated: “I really didn’t have any friends.”
Each woman on the stage at Middlesex University Dubai‘s Knowledge Park campus on September 30 had faced some version of that. The session, titled We Emerge Stronger and Better: Identity, Heritage & the Next Generation, opened Women in Sport: Changing the Narrative and Breaking Boundaries.
The three-part series is run by the university’s London Sport Institute in Dubai, and its focus goes beyond medals: it asks how more women and girls in the region can take part in sport, keep progressing and build careers in the industry.
“Sporting achievements deserve to be celebrated, but it is just as important to look at the opportunities, support systems and pathways that make those achievements possible,” said Charvi Ajay Bhatt, sports partnerships and development executive at MDX Dubai, in a statement. “Through this series, we aim to create an ongoing conversation around how more women can participate in sport, continue progressing, and build meaningful careers across the sector.”
Emirati weightlifter and mental health advocate Amna Al Haddad moderated. With her were Al Hammadi, who also fights for PFL MENA; Maryam Alfarsi, the first Emirati woman to sprint at the Olympic Games; Maha Al Shehhi, the national team swimmer who competed at Paris 2024; and snowboarder Amenah Almuhairi, who has represented the UAE at the Asian Winter Games and the Youth Olympic Games. Gulf Business spoke to them on the day.
Starting from nothing
Some found their sport by accident. Almuhairi started because of her mother. She and her siblings learned to ski, and on a family trip to Bosnia, when she was seven, she switched to snowboarding. She started competing at 13.
“It’s not a very common thing to hear that a person from the UAE, especially, is a freestyle snowboarder,” she says. “But I think we do really need to set the standard that we can do whatever we set our minds to, no matter any challenges.”
When Al Shehhi started, she had no swimmers to look up to. “It’s been a challenge for me at the beginning because there was never anyone who did the sport, but now there are many youngsters who are starting to swim,” she says.
She trains in the morning and again in the afternoon, with gym sessions in between, and has done so for seven years. She says it changed her. “It changed me into a whole different woman, a whole different person that I am today. I became more mentally strong. I’m able to speak up for myself.”
Proving a point
When you represent the UAE in a sport nobody links with the country, you spend a lot of time explaining. For Almuhairi, that is the main downside of snowboarding: “having to constantly repeat myself in the way of showing my country in a different light to what a lot of people that don’t live in Dubai have an image of. But I love it.”
Al Hammadi works in a sport she calls male-dominated, and she carries the same sense of responsibility into every fight. “I’m not representing myself,” she says. She sees herself as fighting for her country and for Emirati women. She would also rather her record spoke than she did: “The achievement, it talks, not me.”
Her results are now drawing other girls in. She says 25 girls she helped train competed at world championships this year, and all of them won medals. “They were like, Zamzam, we joined because of you.”
Al Shehhi has heard similar things from young swimmers at competitions. One girl told her: “My father saw you and I told him I could swim.”
The athletes agree that things are better than they were, and that much of the change is recent.
Alfarsi ran the 100 metres at Paris 2024 aged 16. “I think the sports in the UAE have changed dramatically, and we have so much room to go,” she says. “We’re still new at this, so there’s so much more room for improvement here.”
Al Haddad names two changes: “There is more acceptance and more access, and that is a great step forward.”
What still needs to change
The bigger problem, Al Haddad says, is keeping athletes in sport long enough to reach their potential. “There is still no sustainability in retaining athletes in the region for the long haul,” she says. In her view, building an athlete takes decades, not a few seasons, and it needs funding, sponsorship, good coaches, proper facilities, sport science and sports psychology.
Funding is a constant worry. “As athletes, we chase funding a lot to pay for competition entries, to fund our flights, our training, our coach,” she says. Coaching can be hard to find as well. Al Haddad started weightlifting later than most. Coaches in the UAE were focused on younger athletes and didn’t know how to train her. “I personally had to travel abroad for a year and a half to train to get proper training in Olympic weightlifting,” she says.
Education came up too. Almuhairi studies at the London Sport Institute in Dubai, and on the panel she explained how a flexible timetable lets her fit her studies around training and competitions. The panel argued that young athletes shouldn’t have to choose between university and sport. Almuhairi came to the interview straight from a full day of classes.
She thinks girls in niche sports need the most help. “We really need to put an emphasis on support for girls, but especially girls in unconventional sports,” she says. “It is the only way that we’ll see any more upcoming female athletes.”
For Alfarsi, the answer is visibility. “The more that you see it, the more that people obviously don’t look at it as more of a stereotype, but more as a norm,” she says. “I think that’s very important for families to see here in the UAE.”
Families are also where Al Shehhi still meets resistance. “There’s still some close-minded here and there,” she says. Her message to parents is to let their daughters compete, “because you never know, maybe she’ll become world champion”.
For some of them, sport is only part of the plan. Alfarsi has started an edtech company with a co-founder and turns 19 in a few months. “I think my journey is getting started,” she says.
Al Hammadi wants to compete internationally at senior level, and she wants other women her age alongside her. “My mission now is to see someone who’s as old as me come and support me to pave the way more for women in sports.”
The series has two more sessions planned in the coming months. Women’s Health: Training Through Every Life Stage will cover wellbeing and exercise through different stages of life. Breaking Into the Game: Women’s Careers On and Off the Field will look at jobs for women across the sports industry, not only for athletes.
In their words
Asked what they would say to the next generation, each gave a short answer.
“If you can dream it, you can do it. There are no limitations other than your mind.” – Amenah Almuhairi
“Don’t confine yourself to other people’s expectations.” – Maryam Alfarsi
“If you have a dream, go for it and achieve it.” – Zamzam Al Hammadi
“You don’t need permission. Go for it… Do it because your story matters.” – Amna Al Haddad
