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Hashem Al Marzouqi: Preserving Emirati Heritage One Dish at a Time

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Hashem Al Marzouqi’s vision was simple in its magnitude: on a plate, the rich history of a place. What began as a dream first materialized in 2011 with the opening of the maiden Al Fanar Restaurant in Dubai, igniting a culinary voyage that would set Emirati traditions a league beyond. Today Al Fanar has become a family business, nine establishments in locales as far away as London, and playing a key role in the globalizing Emirati cuisine.

Ever since you enter into an Al Fanar restaurant, you literally enter an anthropologic show booth. Every twig is painstakingly designed to transport the diner to a time before the UAE’s oil boom, making the evening an experience rather than just one meal; it was a slice of life as the view was in the 1960s. A tribute to the abandoned village of Al Jazirat Al Hamra, the latest Al Fanar Seafood Market gazes out over the serene environs of Al Barsha Pond Park. Whilst the coral houses of this village now stand eternally still, haunting monuments to the past, Al Fanar’s menu reflects that same intention to preserve the flavours, and heritage, of days gone by.

 Operations Manager of the group is now the son of Hashem, Sohail al Marzouqi. Al Fanar, for him, is much beyond being a restaurant; it is a tribute to the Emirati style of living that shaped up for his ancestors. “We wanted to recreate an old town as old as Fisherman’s Village on Alhambra Island in Ras al Khaimah,” he says, noting the extent he goes into in ensuring design with such detailing at every branch. The coral-wurked artefacts’, the furniture itself all depict that era when life in this part of the world was simple, quiet, and one of traditions. “The Sixties were a pivotal time for us,” Sohail continues, “It was when we found oil and the country began to develop, but this is how people lived before then, and this is how their houses looked like.

The menu at Al Fanar celebrates this era with dishes passed down through time. Many of them, like their signature dish of machboos samak, have originated from the rich culinary heritage of Sohail’s own grandmother, so every single meal in this place has its authenticity. Traditional sweet dishes comprise the legaimat dough balls and asidat al tamor or date pudding, while the dining feels like experiencing Emirati culture to the core since you sit on cushions around a table that is low in height and one can eat with their hands.

At the Fish Market in Al Fanar, the dinner experience is just a tad bit exotic. The restaurant also offers several Western treats dating from the 1960s and 1970s-old-style sweets that do much to keep alive, for those with a sweet tooth, an age based on an epoch of sucrose imports from the Emirates’ friends abroad. Among the most popular of these is Vimto, a mixed-berry refresher first produced in 1908 by a Manchester company. This high-octane cordial is, today, a more cultural exchange that has come to symbolize the UAE, a goodwill offering of the Ramadan holiday.

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Dr. Raja Easa Al Gurg and the Evolution of Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group

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Dr. Raja Easa Al Gurg, by name, epitomizes business leadership through value addition via innovative and resolute means in steering one of the most widely identified diversified conglomerates in the United Arab Emirates: Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group LLC, vital to the contribution of various sectors to the economy. Having etched her path with strategic brilliance and a quest for perfection, she positioned herself within the crème de la crème of the corporate sector in the region. She came from a family among the oldest business houses in the region, where the trajectory of Dr. Raja Easa Al Gurg was set just as that of her father, Easa Saleh Al Gurg, the pioneer of Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group LLC. The group was founded in 1960 and has since grown to be a beast with interests across building and construction materials, consumer goods, electrical and mechanical engineering, and health.

Under the leadership of Dr. Al Gurg, the group has been expanding in a steady fashion and diversifying its operations. The Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group further diversified into a portfolio of over 27 companies that collectively play a critical role in the economy of the United Arab Emirates. That kind of vision-driven leadership could have the power to drive effectiveness in steering the firm through the shifting economic sands while holding deep values of integrity and innovation at its core. Out of the corridors of the corporate world emerges one of its most influential business leaders: Dr. Al Gurg. She is pegged to be the pioneering lady in this male-dominated industry, signatory of a champion for the women of her country.

Her leadership position as a member of the board at the Dubai Business Women Council puts her in a position where she mentors and coaches other women businesspersons and professionals. This is with the aim of inspiring such women beyond their comfort zones and enabling them to be productive members of society.

She had been a frontline corporate machete, hacking away at the forest of women’s rights. Dr. Al Gurg’s work was opening new windows of opportunity for UAE women and combining in the bricks in the making of a stage for regional women leaders for generations to come. These accomplishments remind one of the transformation that society can get from decisive and visionary leadership. It has, in a nutshell, been the visionary and ambitious leadership in the mold of Dr. Raja Easa Al Gurg, under which the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group has been greatly instrumental in contributing to infrastructural development in United Arab Emirates in both buildings and engineering related sectors over the last couple of decades. What is more, this relentless group support for iconic projects—just like it does for Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Metro—proves that it is very much on the way along this journey of growth for this nation. Innovation is something that will amount to the success of the group, at least according to Dr Al Gurg. For years now, she has been fostering this innovative culture within the organization, where new ideas are supported and taken up.

This kind of foresight sets the group ahead and enables it to cope with a dynamic, competitive market.

The business community, through Dr. Raja Easa Al Gurg, has been a big player in adding value to the UAE economy. In this aspect, over time, she has been feted and awarded in various quarters, with her latest include the Forbes listing of “Most Powerful Arab Women” and “Businesswoman of the Year” at the Gulf Business Awards.

Both of these accolades are not only a testament to her capabilities as a business leader but befit her dedication to social good and ethical leadership. To Dr. Al Gurg, business would equate to honesty, integrity, and respect—values instilled in her from the beginning of her career, training her to lead that way even today.

Not only has Dr. Raja Easa Al Gurg taken Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group LLC to new heights, but this is also the legacy of business leadership, mentorship, and the empowerment of women she left behind. Her contribution toward changing the entire scenario of women in the business community in the UAE has been mammoth, and so is her tale now in becoming an inspirational story for aspirants to become business leaders in the future, both in this nation and across the world.

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Sheikha Bodour’s Impact on UAE’s Literary and Tech Landscape

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Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi is a family title in the Joined together Middle Easterner Emirates, regarded for her venturesome soul and instilling a cherish of perusing and learning. Her Height Sheikha Bodour is the author and CEO of the Kalimat Gather, a driving distributing and Innovation Company. She has made extraordinary commitments to the social scene in the UAE. The typical birth of Sheikha Bodour in Sharjah has driven and created inventive and social divisions inside the UAE. She had a adore for books and a energy for narrating that prompted her to found the Kalimat Bunch. The company is concerned with distributing children and youthful grown-up writing in tall guidelines, as well as instructive materials.

Sheikha Bodour heads the Kalimat Bunch. It has distributed everything from unique titles to interpretations and instructive materials. Kalimat has gotten to be synonymous with adherence to quality benchmarks in creating locks in, information-rich, exceedingly pertinent social substance. On rise to balance, the Kalimat Bunch has been contributing in innovation. Their item extend incorporates special instructive apparatuses and advanced stages: electronic libraries, e-learning assets, and versatile apps. These advances have made a difference bring perusing and learning closer to the UAE’s children and youth.

Sheikha Bodour is a solid advocate for education and instruction. She immovably accepts that books can rouse, teach, and engage youthful individuals. Sheikha Bodour has been instrumental in the advancement of perusing and learning in the UAE through her work with the Kalimat Bunch. These incorporate the arrangement of perusing clubs, book fairs, and visits by creators. The company has moreover come to out to schools and libraries for the advancement of proficiency and get to books among its client groups.

Sheikha Bodour is an advocate for women’s strengthening and social advancement. Concurring to her, instruction ought to be the idol for ladies and young ladies. Through her work with the Kalimat Gather, Sheikha Bodour had worked on the premise of advancing sexual orientation correspondence and women’s strengthening in the work environment. The Kalimat Bunch utilizes a exceptionally differing workforce, wherein ladies play key parts in all regions of the trade. Sheikha Bodour had been included in a few activities that advance women’s enterprise and leadership.

Sheikha Bodour has been recognized as one of the UAE’s social symbols for her numerous rousing commitments and work in UAE’s social scene. Her love for books and storytelling has brought the nation onto the world scholarly outline through the creation of a energetic and flourishing book culture. Other than Kalimat Bunch, Sheikha Bodour partakes in a few social activities. She is a supporter of the expressions and gives bolster to a awesome numerous sorts of social organizations. This is all to the credit of Sheikha Bodour, who brought around a worldview move in the UAE’s social scene, subsequently bringing forward an comprehensive and impartial society with her commitment to proficiency, instruction, and ladies. Sheikha Bodour is respected as a pathfinder not as it were in distributing but moreover in innovation, subsequently expanding the bar with her demonstrate for commerce development in the locale.

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Ahmed Ben Chaibah: The Inspirational Journey of the Middle East Aquaman

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Ahmed Ben Chaibah, the Emirati entrepreneur famously referred to as Aquaman, is one of the influential men in the landscape of Middle Eastern business. The world’s largest inflated aqua park-founder and owner of AquaFun-is a story of many: from rags to international recognition. Ahmed Ben Chaibah’s entrepreneurial journey is the very definition of better vision, resilience, and unwavering determination. Native and raised in the UAE, Ahmed had been passionate about water activities from childhood. This developed further into a business idea that would put forth facelifts to the water entertainment industry coming from all over the region. It was that kind of forward-thinking, rule-breaking that would set the ground for what today has become his most recognizable work-AquaFun.

The World’s Largest Inflatable Aqua Park

For Ahmed, AquaFun is more than just a business initiative. It is a dream. It is situated under the same roof and within just over 2,700 square meters, forming a landmark in water entertainment with 110 inflatable games.

Coming as a must-visit place for both residents and tourists, these parks cater to both challenging and entertaining activities for all ages. His success earned Ahmed the nickname “Aquaman,” a takeoff from being an industrial captain of the large water body besides mastery of water-based entertainment. Doing so, the literally and vastly acknowledged park in this era has carved its name besides making Ahmed be recognized by Guinness World Records. AquaFun is a show of his effort to heighten greatness from exemplary experiences in the leisure industry and also push the envelope of possibilities.

Success was never an easy ride for Ahmed, who received more than 600 refusals in the very first attempt of his professional life. Still, those refusals only pushed him. A quality among others that made Ahmed successful is the sense of commitment and perseverance even under difficult conditions; to him, failure is not the end but one sure step to reach success.

This kind of thinking helped him to persist at worst times and then later achieve his goals. Thus, Ahmed’s story punctuates and underlines the fact that success does not come overnight but is made from hard work, patience, and the art of learning from failures. The story provides inspiration for entrepreneurs, more so to those who may have hit stumbling blocks along the way.

It goes without saying that Ahmed Ben Chaibah has made some great impacts in the world of business. His hard work has not gone without accolades: Entrepreneur of the Year 2021, Emirati Business of the Year 2021, CEO of the Year Business Arabia 2017. Without a doubt, a manifestation of effective business acumen, leadership, and positive impact brought to the business scene in the Middle East. In this case, these are the recognitions behind Ahmed as that one entrepreneur who has managed to come out top through challenges thrown his way in life. These achievements serve to highlight the importance of innovation, persistence, and work ethics. Today, Ahmed Ben Chaibah is not only one of the big businessmen in town but a source of inspiration for many. His life story speaks to that very desire in most people who will make their dream come true and prove that indeed everything is possible if one passionately works towards their dreams. Ahmed also inspires the next generation of entrepreneurs not only from the Middle East but around the globe. What is unquestionably great about Ahmed’s rise is sticking to it and overcoming undeniable rejection to owning a world-renowned enterprise. He has proved that unbeatable odds can actually result in success and will forever be used as the spark among entrepreneurial spirits.

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