DUBAI // Maintaining a full-time job in banking, building a career as a professional make-up artist, and caring for a five-year-old daughter is not easy, but Emirati single mother Afiya Khalid is doing just that.
She has worked in banking for 16 years, but make-up is her passion.
In 2008 she enrolled on a make-up course, although she has been experimenting with make-up ever since she can remember, and has also learnt skills through the internet. She began practising on family and friends, but now does everything, from fashion shows to weddings.
“When I was three or four years old, my mum noticed that I loved make-up as I put it on my face all the time, and admired the women who wore it,” said Ms Khalid, 35. “Her friends could even tell. Whenever she went to a beauty parlour, I went with her to watch how the people were doing their hair and make-up.
“I started watching beauty programmes. I learnt tips from people. I knew I had talent but needed to get deeper and learn more skills, which I did with the [Make Up Forever] academy.”
In 2005, while working, she graduated from the University of Dubai with a degree in banking and finance.
Her make-up influences were not traditionally Khaleeji, she said, and included artists in the United States and the European courses she has taken. These gave her a better understanding of Asian, African and European styles.
“People assume I will be Khaleeji until they see my photos and they realise I’m not.
“My own make-up isn’t so heavy and doesn’t have so much colour and sharp lines. My style is closer to Lebanese and you can still tell it’s Arab.”
Her choice to become a make-up artist is unusual. There were no other Emiratis on her course, and she has not come across many other Emirati women in the field. “Banking is my career, but this is my passion,” she said.
“My family is really supportive. There are other Emiratis doing this but they’re not really on the scene, but they have talent and they’re coming up,” said Ms Khalid. “Emirati women like to be independent and they see this career as something they could build in the future into a business.
“It’s suitable for girls even from conservative families and there really are opportunities here.”
She, however, said there were challenges for those who, like her, did not want to open a traditional salon.
“Here people think if you have a salon you’re successful, but that’s not the case,” she said. “People look at your portfolio. I don’t want a salon that is about everything. We need to change this mentality. In Kuwait and Bahrain, it’s a more popular career, but here Emiratis still focus on the salon.”
Ms Khalid has a strong character. She is a divorcee in a family centred society.
“My family has been supportive. People know it’s hard to be a single mother, but not how hard,” she said.
“My daughter is a happy child and doing very well in school, and while I work, she has my mother, who we moved back with to give her that constant care.”
Living in a big family with four sisters and a brother makes all the difference. “My daughter has so many cousins who she spends all her time with. So it makes it easier being in a big family when I’m working 8 to 6.”
Ms Khalid is trying to instil a sense of independence in her daughter and be a positive role model.
“I tell her she doesn’t need to live with a man to be successful if he’s not treating her right,” she said.
“In my mother’s generation nobody got divorced. Nobody would support it. But now, women are educated, they are working, they are independent.
“Women won’t just take the same things any more, so parents are supporting them.”
mswan@thenational.ae
