If there’s one thing the world finds challenging, it’s a woman who knows her own power.
Assert yourself, and you’re “too much”. Show care and compassion, and you’re “not enough”. This confusion comes from centuries of undermining female power – a woman’s right to lead, own, decide and shape the world – and reducing feminine power to something soft, decorative and second tier. But female power isn’t unnatural, and feminine power isn’t weak.
Female power is about women’s inherent rights, dignity and agency – access to education, leadership, economic independence and personal autonomy. Feminine power refers to qualities traditionally seen as “feminine” – care, empathy, collaboration and intuition – that exist in both women and men. Society mistakenly equates femininity with women alone, stereotyping and dismissing it as weak, rather than seeing how it complements and enriches power.
People often confuse the two because power has been defined in rigid, male-centric ways. The world needs both. Female power ensures equity, while feminine power reshapes how power is understood and wielded for the greater good.
Female power resides in women’s bodies. But women’s bodies have been, and sadly continue to be, locations of control and shame – control by society and men, and shame when women control them or when they do things that men’s bodies don’t: periods, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause, breastfeeding, enjoyment of her own body. Every incredible thing that a woman’s body does – her female and her feminine power – are historically taboo subjects, and categorised as problematic, or shameful.
It is only with age, and having two daughters, that the incredible act of being able to create a human being has made me realise the extraordinary power of female bodies.
On Saturday, February 1, two events mark different expressions of female and feminine power.
World Hijab Day, now in its 13th year, was founded by Bangladeshi American Nazma Khan to promote religious freedom and cultural understanding by inviting non-Muslim women to wear a hijab for a day.
I doubt the people of Gaza, Sudan or Yemen – or the countless women who have survived sexual violence – would agree that what the world needs is more aggression
As a Muslim woman who wears hijab, I have mixed feelings. For me, it’s an act of spiritual commitment and a reclaiming of my body from commodification. Someone wearing it for a day won’t experience that same journey. I don’t need women to dress like me to know we are allies. And yet, despite my reservations, I appreciate the power in what World Hijab Day represents: reclaiming autonomy over our bodies, refusing to be dictated to about what we should or shouldn’t wear. Even if you don’t wear hijab, the fight for bodily autonomy matters to all women. A pride in the female and the feminine.
Women are socialised to exist in a constant state of dissatisfaction that aims to suck away our power. We are told our value lies in our beauty and selflessness, to please others. When I talk to girls about how beauty standards are constructed, I tell them the most revolutionary act a woman or girl can do is to look in the mirror and be happy with what she sees. That’s power.
February 1 is also Saint Brigid’s Day, honouring Ireland’s only female patron saint. Brigid was originally a triple goddess of healing, fire and poetry. Later it was the name of a saint, born around 450 AD and now the patron of poets and midwives. After a three-year campaign by the feminist group Herstory, Ireland established the first Monday after February 1 as a public holiday in her name.
The poet Laura Murphy was part of that campaign. She sees the recognition of Brigid as a restoration of female and feminine power: “The feminine has been written out of history and out of our society. Honouring a woman as eminent as Brigid signals a new era for Ireland based on her principles of equality, unity, truth, compassion and love.”
This is Ireland’s own local cultural reclamation of female and feminine power, just like World Hijab Day attempts to do.
It is part of a wider appetite for this shift. But the fact that expressions of female and feminine power continue to face public and social resistance tells us just how significant – and threatening – they are seen to be.
Case in point: Mark Zuckerberg recently declared that workplaces need more “masculine energy”. On a podcast, he argued for celebrating “aggression” in work culture. I doubt the people of Gaza, Sudan or Yemen – or the countless women who have survived sexual violence – would agree that what the world needs is more aggression.
His comments reinforce a deeply flawed belief: that power and success come from aggression, and that female and feminine power are second best or irrelevant. Undoubtedly, hunger and ferocity are important, but such views reinforce the idea that neither female nor feminine power is valuable or leads to success.
It also misdirects people to see society’s bedrock as aggression – or masculinity – rather than what should take a greater share of our conversations about what is the bedrock of human society: creation and care.
This mindset is woven into history. Early human societies are framed around the “hunter-gatherer” archetype, centring the men who hunted while ignoring the women who gave birth, nurtured and ensured survival. Even today, care work – overwhelmingly performed by women – is undervalued. Feminine power, which is seen as connected for bodily reasons to creation and care, is dismissed as secondary to money-making and aggression. But if female and feminine power were removed from society, everything would collapse.
It’s time to rethink power. True power isn’t about destruction, exclusion or forcing women into a constant state of discontent. True power is in creation, in care, in reclaiming women’s autonomy and their stories. Men and women need to work together to value both female and feminine power. We must do that in public, in the home, in the workplace and most of all, in ourselves. Not just for one day, but every day.
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MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 502hp at 7,600rpm
Torque: 637Nm at 5,150rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Price: from Dh317,671
On sale: now
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
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US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.
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The 12 Syrian entities delisted by UK
Ministry of Interior
Ministry of Defence
General Intelligence Directorate
Air Force Intelligence Agency
Political Security Directorate
Syrian National Security Bureau
Military Intelligence Directorate
Army Supply Bureau
General Organisation of Radio and TV
Al Watan newspaper
Cham Press TV
Sama TV
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
At Eternity’s Gate
Director: Julian Schnabel
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Oscar Isaacs, Mads Mikkelsen
Three stars
Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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Profile box
Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
SPEC%20SHEET
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The biog
Name: Atheja Ali Busaibah
Date of birth: 15 November, 1951
Favourite books: Ihsan Abdel Quddous books, such as “The Sun will Never Set”
Hobbies: Reading and writing poetry
Quick%20facts
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company%20Profile
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Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
