Through unbridled drive and with altruistic purpose, Dr Reem Tariq El Mutwalli, founder of The Zay Initiative, has amassed a treasure trove of regional thobes that weave an empowered tale of Arab women and a country’s cultural narrative, from past to future

“The Emirati thobe can serve as the first point of contact between people. More than a dress, it is a powerful ambassador and a porthole to understanding the soul of a people and their land.”

From her home in Dubai, Dr Reem Tariq El Mutwalli is in the thick of planning her daughter’s wedding. The weight of the cultural significance of the event is not lost on her lithe shoulders. Another woman might be less weary but Dr El Mutwalli, who bellies an unquenched thirst for storytelling, didn’t hesitate to dive headfirst into its multifaceted significance. “I’m almost shocked by how much symbolism is involved in our daily lives that we don’t even consider. It’s second nature to us, and it’s part of our culture, but we don’t understand it and we don’t even know it,” she says.

The culture and history behind objects and events have been somewhat of an obsession for Dr El Mutwalli since her earliest days, when she moved as a child from Baghdad to the United Arab Emirates. Her father was appointed an economic advisor to the Crown Prince, then the late Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, by Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan, the founding father of the UAE. “I grew up with the Al Nahyan family. My father was at the palace on a daily basis – we would go with him, and all us children would play together. Life was much simpler then,” she recalls. Being raised in a new country, she was especially cognisant of her surroundings and cultural mores, and soon realised that clothing, particularly the Emirati thobe, could serve as the first point of contact between people. More than a dress, it was a powerful ambassador and a porthole to understanding the soul of a people and their land. During her decades-long career working at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi giving lectures, meeting dignitaries and overseeing openings, she took great care in the message her choice of dress offered the public. “I felt that as a representative of Emirati culture at this institution, I needed to dress for and represent the role. I conscientiously looked for these traditional dresses and made sure to wear them when I was in public,” recalls Dr El Mutwalli. She purchased some, and commissioned others, and then through word of mouth, she created her own clothing line.

“I was always fascinated by these outfits. I loved them and enjoyed wearing them,” she explains. “People knew how captivated I was by the clothes, and if there was a special dress, they would send it to me, and it became part of my own wardrobe. People generally don’t collect clothes, they give them away. By chance, I kept mine as they became a part of my daily wear.” Little by little, her collection grew, and today, it consists of over 800 traditional Emirati thobes. “I never thought of it as a collection at all,” insists Dr El Mutwalli. “Eventually, I realised that I was sitting on a cultural gem. I decided to do my PhD thesis on women and their dress. I understood that I had special access, even though I had never been conscious of the privilege that I had. I recognised that there was something there that needed to be studied and archived, and that what was personal and private needed to become public to be studied and understood.”

On a quest for information, Dr El Mutwalli returned to her childhood circle. “You have to remember, back then most women were very private,” she points out. “They would not speak to an outsider. But because I grew up among them, they were not shy to speak with me and they invited me into their lives again as a researcher.” To fortify her learnings, she spoke to the younger generations at universities and schools. She authored her book, printed in English and Arabic titled Sultani, Traditions Renewed; Changes in Women’s Traditional Dress in the UAE during the reign of Shaykh Zayid bin Sultan Al Nahyan, 1966-2004. To this day, it remains the world’s most comprehensive reference on the evolution of dress in the UAE. Through her studies, Dr El Mutwalli learned that across the region, most people were not educated about the culture and attire of their country. She established a non-profit, The Zay Initiative, in 2018 to preserve Arab culture through dress, and became active in collecting thobes from other countries of the Arab world. The Zay Initiative features the first regional digital archive and dictionary underscoring the region’s dress culture, with pieces from Yemen, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait and more. Around 800 articles from its ever expanding collection of more than 2000 pieces are published online, and this content can be viewed globally by all, for free. The platform also offers touring exhibitions and museum loans to raise awareness about the evolution of regional culture. Meanwhile, all the pieces are secured in a storage facility donated in support of The Zay Initiative.

Today, such traditional attire is still worn by Emirati women during religious festive seasons, special events like weddings or to celebrate educational or career milestones. The overgarment worn by Dr El Mutwalli is a piece she designed from a larger collection of 100 thobes, and carries a verse from the Founding Father Sheikh Zayed’s poetry. A gold dress in her collection was commissioned by Sheikha Hamda bint Mohammed Al Nahyan as a gift to Dr El Mutwalli to commemorate the completion of her PhD. The late Fatima bint Saad, a palace dressmaker, created the overgarment and tunic dress based on the Sheikha’s own wedding dress, along with a gold-studded burqa. Such dresses were created with noble fabrics – this thobe features French silk chiffon with purple, turquoise and gold brocade. It is encrusted with three types of hand-stitched 18-carat gold platelets, some which resemble old embossed coins and stars. The style of dress, worn by the elite, is an example of the Arabic saying, zinah wa khazinah “beauty and wealth in one.”

Amassing the thousands of pieces proved challenging. “The first obstacle is that in our culture, we are not raised with the notion of collecting. We tend to give away whatever we have,” explains Dr El Mutwalli. “If a dress is purchased for Eid, the following year maybe it will be gifted to a relative, and this handing down will continue until it is given away to somebody who is in need. That’s the culture. Therefore, people do not understand the historic value of preserving their clothes.” She underscores another challenge: people consider their clothes as part of their being, and their essence. “Often some worry about giving them to others intentionally because they are superstitious about the evil eye,” she says. “When somebody comes and says, ‘I want this’, some become very reserved to give away their dress because they fear a bad omen.”

Fortunately, Dr El Mutwalli’s altruistic intentions driving her collecting gained the trust from the women of her community, and The Zay Initiative gained traction globally. Today, its value is inestimable. For decades, European countries have wielded the power of clothing to serve as international cultural ambassadors. Fashion exhibitions tour the world for months at a time and books meticulously document their origins, purpose and social significance. They inform how women’s roles in society –in both public and the home– are valued, and evolve. Without doubt, the drive of one woman is already creating a ripple effect, redefining the ways in which the Arab woman’s story is told and expanding that legacy.

Role Models

Four Emirati women at the forefront of the nation’s cultural shift pay homage to their roots in rare pieces from The Zay Initiative’s archive.