Yemen was Nariman El-Mofty’s first war.
Everything was a shock, the Egyptian photojournalist says of her first trip to the war-scarred nation in 2018, from civilian casualties and starving children to child soldiers and widows left to fend for themselves.
“Hunger was very new to me. In Yemen, children who starved silently were the biggest shock,” El-Mofty, 35, recalled about her Yemen assignments between 2018 and 2020 that won her the first of two Pulitzer Prizes.
“No one cried or screamed. Children normally react and make sure that everyone knows if something is bothering them. A child that is not reacting to anything was very shocking to me.”
El-Mofty encountered silence again in the middle of another war, this time among the elderly in Ukraine.
“In Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, elderly people also suffer in silence, but alone. People in their 80s sit still and silent while the bombing goes on around them. They just sit still waiting for death to come and take them,” El-Mofty told The National.
She won her second Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, in the category of breaking news photography, and was a finalist in the feature photography category, sharing the honours in both cases with a team of Associated Press photographers.
She travels to New York next month for the award ceremony.
Covering wars is the dream of many journalists, who are driven to take risks in exchange for making a name for themselves. In most cases, as El-Mofty discovered, the challenges they face in the war zone – personal safety, logistics and keeping combatants at an arm’s length – are replaced by others when they leave.
“You leave with a bit of guilt. But you need to be mature about it. It takes time to separate one’s life from what you do. I am still working on this, but it’s eating me up,” said El-Mofty, who resigned from AP this year and is now freelance.
“It’s in the back of my mind every time I eat,” she said about photographing starving children in Yemen.
“It touches you and becomes part of you. In some ways, it also defines who you are.
“As hard as it [war photography] makes you, it also makes your heart bigger. It has changed the way I see children, the elderly and mothers. I have become softer in many ways.”
A graduate of Montreal’s Concordia University, El-Mofty began working for the AP in Cairo in 2011 as a photo desk editor, spending up to 10 hours a day, five days a week, editing about 100 images from across the Middle East daily.
In a busy and noisy newsroom dealing at the time with an avalanche of stories on the Arab uprisings, she was almost invisible – glued to her screen and her voice rarely heard.
She may have been biding her time.
“In those days, I spent my weekends photographing daily life in Cairo. I did the camel market, the Khan El Khalili bazaar, the circus and the city’s medieval quarter,” she said. She showed her photos to her boss and mentor at the time, veteran French-Iranian photographer Manoocher Deghati.
“He would look at them and explain where I went wrong or where I could have done better. After a few months he began to use some of them,” she said.
Slowly, she began to be given photo assignments – nothing very exciting or potentially prize-winning at first, but El-Mofty was happy to spend time away from her desk.
For Yemen, the first big story of her career, she was joined by reporter Maggie Michael, also an Egyptian, and Yemeni video-journalist Maad El Zikrey.
The three of them travelled widely in southern Yemen, experiencing the ravages of the war between the internationally-recognised government supported by a Saudi-led alliance and the Shiite Houthi rebels backed by Iran.
The first of her three trips to Yemen came in 2018, the year after El-Mofty lost her father, with whom she was very close.
He died at the age of 62 from cancer.
The loss was hard to take for El-Mofty, the youngest of three siblings.
“Everything I wanted to do I did to impress him. That remains unchanged today,” she said.
“He helped me thicken my skin in this industry. He never got me a camera until he was sure beyond a shred of doubt that I was serious about photography,” she said. “He was very tough.”
To be a capable field photographer, El-Mofty found, more than thick skin was needed.
“I was slow even though I was not carrying any gear,” she said about a drill she was put through in a hostile environment training course that simulated a hand-grenade explosion. “I was supposed to run as fast as I could in the opposite direction then lay down with my mouth open. But I was very slow.”
Her response was to take up rigorous workouts, including weightlifting, so she was able to move easily and quickly while taking photos and carrying 12 or 15 kilos of cameras and equipment on her back.
But that was not all.
Photography is dominated by men; war news photography much more so.
El-Mofty did everything she could to avoid appearing frail, emotional or weak-willed to her male peers. At times she covered up illness, even great pain, for fear of being sidelined or sent home.
“I put a lot of effort into that. I may have taken it to extremes. At the end, I hurt myself and it didn’t matter much,” she said.
“I became good at faking toughness, and I kind of sacrificed my physical wellness in the process.”
The five pillars of Islam
Company profile
Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
Employees: Five
Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
Company profile
Name: Back to Games and Boardgame Space
Started: Back to Games (2015); Boardgame Space (Mark Azzam became co-founder in 2017)
Founder: Back to Games (Mr Azzam); Boardgame Space (Mr Azzam and Feras Al Bastaki)
Based: Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Industry: Back to Games (retail); Boardgame Space (wholesale and distribution)
Funding: Back to Games: self-funded by Mr Azzam with Dh1.3 million; Mr Azzam invested Dh250,000 in Boardgame Space
Growth: Back to Games: from 300 products in 2015 to 7,000 in 2019; Boardgame Space: from 34 games in 2017 to 3,500 in 2019
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Q&A with Dash Berlin
Welcome back. What was it like to return to RAK and to play for fans out here again?
It’s an amazing feeling to be back in the passionate UAE again. Seeing the fans having a great time that is what it’s all about.
You're currently touring the globe as part of your Legends of the Feels Tour. How important is it to you to include the Middle East in the schedule?
The tour is doing really well and is extensive and intensive at the same time travelling all over the globe. My Middle Eastern fans are very dear to me, it’s good to be back.
You mix tracks that people know and love, but you also have a visually impressive set too (graphics etc). Is that the secret recipe to Dash Berlin's live gigs?
People enjoying the combination of the music and visuals are the key factor in the success of the Legends Of The Feel tour 2018.
Have you had some time to explore Ras al Khaimah too? If so, what have you been up to?
Coming fresh out of Las Vegas where I continue my 7th annual year DJ residency at Marquee, I decided it was a perfect moment to catch some sun rays and enjoy the warm hospitality of Bab Al Bahr.
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
The specs: 2018 Ducati SuperSport S
Price, base / as tested: Dh74,900 / Dh85,900
Engine: 937cc
Transmission: Six-speed gearbox
Power: 110hp @ 9,000rpm
Torque: 93Nm @ 6,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 5.9L / 100km
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
Important questions to consider
1. Where on the plane does my pet travel?
There are different types of travel available for pets:
- Manifest cargo
- Excess luggage in the hold
- Excess luggage in the cabin
Each option is safe. The feasibility of each option is based on the size and breed of your pet, the airline they are traveling on and country they are travelling to.
2. What is the difference between my pet traveling as manifest cargo or as excess luggage?
If traveling as manifest cargo, your pet is traveling in the front hold of the plane and can travel with or without you being on the same plane. The cost of your pets travel is based on volumetric weight, in other words, the size of their travel crate.
If traveling as excess luggage, your pet will be in the rear hold of the plane and must be traveling under the ticket of a human passenger. The cost of your pets travel is based on the actual (combined) weight of your pet in their crate.
3. What happens when my pet arrives in the country they are traveling to?
As soon as the flight arrives, your pet will be taken from the plane straight to the airport terminal.
If your pet is traveling as excess luggage, they will taken to the oversized luggage area in the arrival hall. Once you clear passport control, you will be able to collect them at the same time as your normal luggage. As you exit the airport via the ‘something to declare’ customs channel you will be asked to present your pets travel paperwork to the customs official and / or the vet on duty.
If your pet is traveling as manifest cargo, they will be taken to the Animal Reception Centre. There, their documentation will be reviewed by the staff of the ARC to ensure all is in order. At the same time, relevant customs formalities will be completed by staff based at the arriving airport.
4. How long does the travel paperwork and other travel preparations take?
This depends entirely on the location that your pet is traveling to. Your pet relocation compnay will provide you with an accurate timeline of how long the relevant preparations will take and at what point in the process the various steps must be taken.
In some cases they can get your pet ‘travel ready’ in a few days. In others it can be up to six months or more.
5. What vaccinations does my pet need to travel?
Regardless of where your pet is traveling, they will need certain vaccinations. The exact vaccinations they need are entirely dependent on the location they are traveling to. The one vaccination that is mandatory for every country your pet may travel to is a rabies vaccination.
Other vaccinations may also be necessary. These will be advised to you as relevant. In every situation, it is essential to keep your vaccinations current and to not miss a due date, even by one day. To do so could severely hinder your pets travel plans.
Source: Pawsome Pets UAE
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
Apple%20Mac%20through%20the%20years
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The years Ramadan fell in May
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch
St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais
Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais
Company%20Profile
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Brief scores:
Kashima Antlers 0
River Plate 4
Zuculini 24', Martinez 73', 90 2', Borre 89' (pen)
