Ivanka Trump meets Emirati female entrepreneurs during tour of Abu Dhabi tourist spots

Ivanka Trump has discussed issues of female empowerment with UAE ministers and entrepreneurs as she toured some of capital’s best known sites.

The daughter and adviser of US President Donald Trump visited Louvre Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

Ms Trump took part in a brief meeting with Minister of Culture Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of State for International Co-operation Reem Al Hashimi and Minister of Advanced Science Sarah Al Amiri and female entrepreneurs during her day of sightseeing.

“This is the perfect way to start out what is a short but hopefully very substantive and productive visit to the UAE,” she said in the meeting. “To hear directly from female entrepreneurs about the opportunities and the barriers that have been lifted in recent years and challenges ahead for each of you directly in your unique businesses and industries.”

Ms Al Hashimi and Ms Trump held a bilateral meeting before she was shown artefacts by museum director Manuel Rabate, including an 1822 portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart and a frieze from a Christian monastery in Bani Yas Island.

The museum on Saadiyat Island opened in 2017 and has hosted a variety of public figures, including Jordan’s King Abdullah and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Later on Saturday afternoon, Ms Trump visited Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque where a tour guide showed her around and she signed a visitors book.

Ms Trump is in the UAE to give the keynote address at the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai on Sunday. The conference is expected to draw more than 100 global leaders and 3,000 delegates to discuss the advancement of women.

In 2017, the UAE and Saudi Arabia donated $100 million to Ms Trump’s Women Entrepreneurs fund, which provides microfinance to women in underdeveloped countries. The donation was made after Ms Trump visited Riyadh.

Ms Trump’s visit came two days after she unveiled a bipartisan effort in the US House and Senate to “establish women's economic empowerment as a core facet of the United States foreign policy”, according her speech at a White House event to launch the legislation.

The launch marked the first anniversary of Ms Trump’s Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative to increase women's involvement in the economy through vocational training, access to capital and markets and working with governments to reduce legal and cultural barriers to women’s employment.

The initiative aims to impact 50 million women in developing countries by 2025, and has already reached 12 million people, according to its annual report.

But critics say the effort is a patch for an administration that is cutting foreign aid to initiatives to empower women through family planning. In 2017, Mr Trump brought in legislation which required foreign NGOs receiving US government funding to prove they do not offer certain types of family planning advice.

The US poverty charity CARE welcomed the new US focus on women’s empowerment, but said more should be done to include reproductive rights.

“CARE is troubled by the lack of attention to women’s health in particular within the National Security Presidential Memo and we urge the Trump Administration to reverse policies that are harmful to women’s health and well-being,” it said in a statement last week.

A International Women’s Health Coalition report called the 2017 legislation, known as the Global Gag Rule, “harmful to the health and well-being of women, young people, and marginalised communities”, saying it exacerbated existing barriers to health care. The coalition carried out 170 interviews in Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and South Africa to investigate the rule’s impact.

Our legal consultants

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013

While you're here

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

match info

Union Berlin 0

Bayern Munich 1 (Lewandowski 40' pen, Pavard 80')

Man of the Match: Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich)

Specs

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Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request

The bio

Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.

Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.

Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.

Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.