Across jewelry, wellness, furniture, and luxury consulting, Emirati women are building brands that carry personal history and national identity into contemporary spaces. Here are six founders putting distinctly Emirati perspectives at the heart of modern brands.

Noora Shawqi — Noora Shawqi Jewellery

What began as an Instagram account in 2017 to share a love of fine jewellery became a full label a year later. Noora Shawqi is a certified Diamond Graduate from the Gemological Institute of America, holds a Diamond Grader certification from the International Gemological Institute, and completed training at L’Ecole Van Cleef & Arpels. Her collections translate travel, from Sri Lanka to Japan, into fine jewellery made in Dubai with local artisans. Her work has been featured in Vogue Arabia, Grazie Middle East, and JCK. In 2023 the brand also ran a CSR campaign focused on conserving coral reef systems.

Ghaliya Ahli — Gigi Dubai

Photo: Soigné Middle East

With a background in marketing and research, Ghaliya Ahli set out to build a brand. Gigi Dubai launched as the city’s first Lagree-method studio, centered on slow, controlled movements on a Megaformer machine. It has since grown into a lifestyle platform across two locations in Mirdif and Nad Al Sheba, built around design, community, and a calendar of events and pop-ups. Ahli has described wanting the space to move beyond neutral wellness aesthetics into something bolder and more culturally aware.

Maitha and Alya Al Suwaidi — Contemporary Spaces

Photo: Instagram-@aeworld_mag

Alongside their brother Obaid, sisters Maitha and Alya Al Suwaidi founded Contemporary Spaces after years spent inside their father’s furniture manufacturing factories. Officially launched in Dubai’s Al Quoz creative district, the studio channels that inherited craft knowledge into locally made furniture and interiors defined by structure, precision, and sculptural clarity, balancing heritage with a distinctly modern design language.

Fatma and Maryam Sahem — Khayal Jewellery

Khayal, the Arabic word for imagination, began when sisters Fatma and Maryam Sahem went looking for a piece of jewellery they had envisioned but could not find. That search became a brand defined by whimsy and fine craftsmanship. Collections draw inspiration from destinations including Japan, Morocco, and the Maldives. Their Enchanted collection later transformed the chequered pattern into a gemstone form, offering a different approach to how the motif could appear in jewellery.

Fatma Al Bannai — Baguette Design

Photo: Instagram – @ aeworld_mag

Before jewellery, Fatma Al Bannai’s creative instincts ran toward writing. That literary sensibility carries into Baguette Design, named after the baguette diamond cut she has favored since childhood. Each collection is conceived narratively, treated like a story translated into wearable form, with attention to line, proportion, and longevity.

Hala Al Gergawi — Tea Before Noon and Elevenish

Photo: Getty images

A former Managing Editor of Zahrat Al Khaleej magazine, Hala Al Gergawi began her entrepreneurial path in 2007 with a directory magazine spotlighting Emirati women-owned businesses. That project evolved into Tea Before Noon, relaunched in 2018 as one of the region’s first luxury lifestyle consultancies, helping global brands including Burberry and Dior localize their presence for GCC audiences. In 2021 she founded Elevenish, an online platform for abayas, fragrances, and accessories created by emerging Gulf designers. Al Gergawi has also served as UAE country office manager for Young Arab Leaders and previously sat on the Emirates Business Women Council.

Together these brands reflect a clear shift. They are building from local craft, personal archives, and regional insight, then producing work in the UAE for audiences both here and abroad. In doing so, they are moving Emirati women’s entrepreneurship from representation to ownership, and helping define what modern design in the region looks like.

Read Next Post: UAE to Mark Emirati Women’s Day With Month-Long Celebrations

The UAE will mark Emirati Women’s Day on August 28. Emirati Women’s Day is an occasion that celebrates the achievements of Emirati women and highlights their role in the development of the country. For the first time since Emirati Women’s Day started in 2015, the celebration will run for a full month, from August 28 to September 28 2026.

Photo: Emirate women

The expansion was announced by Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, known as the “Mother of the Nation.” Sheikha Fatima chairs the General Women’s Union, presides over the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and leads the Family Development Foundation.

She announced that this year’s Emirati Women’s Day would be observed for longer than a day. Celebrations will continue through the month.

This year’s theme is “Together We Rise Stronger and Better.” The theme takes a different approach, looking beyond individual success stories by Emirati women. Instead it places women’s achievements within families, workplaces, institutions and communities.

Her Highness Sheikha Fatima said Emirati women have reached their position with support, from families, institutions and Emirati men. She also added that Emirati women’s progress also strengthens the UAE as a whole.

Photo: Getty images

In line with that, this year’s program will also honour men who have supported women’s advancement, reinforcing an emphasis on partnership over competition.

The month-long celebration is part of the Mother of the Nation’s 50:50 Vision, a long-term initiative that looks ahead to 2075 and the role of women in the UAE over the next 50 years.

The observance falls on August 28 each year, a date that also marks the founding of the UAE’s General Women’s Union in 1975. Since then, the occasion has become an annual opportunity to celebrate Emirati women and recognize their contributions across the country. Emirati women currently hold roughly 63 percent of leadership positions across the government sector and 50 percent of seats in the Federal National Council.

Photo: reflection_stars_pr

With the celebration now stretching across a full month, government entities, businesses, and hospitality venues across the UAE are expected to mark the occasion with initiatives, recognition programs, and public events, according to organizers, with further details to be announced by participating organizations in the lead-up to the month- long program.

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A 19-year-old law student raised in AbuDhabi is preparing to represent India at the Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico after being crowned Miss Universe India 2026 in Jaipur. Mejo spoke to Gulf News from Jaipur about how her UAE upbringing prepared her for the international stage.

Photo: Instagram-@ missuniverseindiaorg

Mejo credits her upbringing in AbuDhabi with preparing her for the role long before she knew she would represent India on a global stage. Being raised among people from different backgrounds, cultures and languages helped shape her worldview, while allowing her to stay connected to her Indian roots.

Growing up around people from different backgrounds in AbuDhabi gave her a firsthand understanding of different cultures and perspectives. She said that experience shaped the way she sees the world.

That multicultural exposure, she believes, extended beyond social experience into education itself.  Her time abroad also sharpened her perspective on India itself. Watching how her country was perceived by people from across the globe reinforced her sense of India as a global powerhouse, giving her the confidence to step into the role of international representative.

 Roots in Dance and Family Support

Photo: Instagram- @missuniverseindiaorg

Before entering pageantry, Mejo spent years as an Indian classical dancer, taking the stage from around the age of five.

Her mother had participated in small pageants growing up in Kerala, though Mejo says she entered the pageant world without any parental pressure to do so. When she told her parents about her plans, they responded with encouragement, focusing on how to help her take the first step rather than questioning the decision.

The Night of the Crowning

Photo: Instagram- @tcx.official

Mejo competed against 51 other contestants for the national title at the August 23, 2026, pageant. She said she felt unusually calm just before going on stage, but that changed completely when her name was announced as the winner.

 Life After the Crown

Mejo has been candid about aspects of pageant life that rarely make headlines. Rather than restrictive dieting, she says she ate pizzas and burgers throughout the competition, and celebrated her win with the same indulgence in the early hours of the morning. She has been equally direct about her views on body image within the industry, arguing that a body sustained through starvation was never truly one’s own to begin with.

Her first night as titleholder was spent guarding the crown itself, having slept beside its box and woken with marks from its edges the following morning.

Beyond the pageant, opportunities are already surfacing. Mejo says she has received offers spanning brand ambassadorships and film roles, with acting long standing among her personal ambitions. For now, she says her focus remains singular: representing India on the Miss Universe stage and bringing the international crown home.

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