Iftar with an Emirati Family

Catherine and Zsofia show off their henna painting from the iftar

Iftar is one of the most important gatherings for Emiratis and for Muslims in general. Every evening of Ramadan, at the sound of the sunset call to prayer, the family sits down together to break their fast. To be welcomed into a family's house for iftar shows trust and generosity. Two of our incoming Spring 2019 students got to have this precious experience when they were invited to an iftar dinner at the house of Maha Al Shehhi, a local Emirati woman. Zsofia Slamani from Simon Fraser University, Canada, and Catherine Kachman from the University of Alabama, USA, enjoyed an authentic Emirati iftar with Maha and her family complete with mouth-watering food, henna painting, and most importantly, traditional Emirati hospitality and generosity.

Dr. Linda Angell, the Director of IXO, fixed Zsofia and Catherine up with Maha, who is a friend of IXO and an AUS College of Engineering alumna. Maha often hosts expats like IXO students in her Ajman home, and Zsofia and Catherine got in touch with her to coordinate to attend her family's iftar on Tuesday, May 21.

Zsofia and Catherine were nervous about going to the iftar at first. "We went to Spinneys and got flowers and a fruit plate as gifts," Catherine said. "We then took our taxi there, and we were very nervous. When we walked in, we were blown away by how nice their house was and how welcoming they were. From the moment we arrived, they were so sweet and nice; they made us comfortable. And then, more of [Maha's] family started arriving, and it felt like we were at a genuine family gathering, like it was any normal iftar with their whole family."

Catherine noted how this family gathering differed from her family gatherings back home in the USA. "We live so far away from each other in the USA; my nuclear family is in Maryland, but my aunts and uncles are in Florida, Michigan, Nebraska - all over the USA. So we never had the more ‘casual’ iftars together because everyone’s so far away. In contrast, when we went to the iftar at Maha's house, everyone knew what was going on in each other’s lives and they were much closer with their cousins and aunts. I also think they were much more comfortable and very honest with each other because they see each other so often. It was nice just to see their family and how open they were. Aside from the two of us, there were also journalists there who had no real relation with the family, and the family were just as nice and generous with us as they were with them. They made everyone feel very part of the family."

"For people they've never met before, they treated us exceptionally amazing," Zsofia agreed. "For me, the best part of the iftar was the overall atmosphere, being so welcomed, being taken in like it’s nobody’s business." Catherine added that she enjoyed just being around the family even after the dinner was over: "I really enjoyed afterwards, when we were all sitting on the couch, drinking chai, tea, or coffee, and just hanging out," she said. "They did our henna, and we just talked about the strangest things. Maha's mother put on an Emirati TV show that only comes on during Ramadan, and we talked about different cultures and how it is in the USA and Canada. I really enjoyed doing that because it felt like a nice hangout session."

So how was the dinner itself? "The food was amazing," Catherine said. "They had so much food, these big bowls just stuffed with chicken and rice, and it was so, so good." The girls described the delicious harees they had, which is a traditional Emirati food made of wheat and lamb. "They also gave us freshly-squeezed kiwi juice, which was amazing!" Zsofia said. Catherine enthusiastically agreed, saying, "I know, I know, it was so good!" They also recounted eating little samosas, salads, mandi-style chicken with rice, and a stew with lamb, carrots, onions, and eggplant. "I had the best dates I've ever had in my life," Catherine said. "I put this date in my mouth and it tasted like silk!" she laughed. "I was like, is this actually a date right now?"

The iftar spread

I asked the girls if they felt like they became friends with the family, and they passionately spoke over each other to agree. "Oh yeah," Catherine said. "Not just friends. We cried when we left!" Zsofia agreed, saying, "They told us, 'You don’t just have friends in the UAE, you have a family, you have a home for when you want to come back,' and you could tell they were 100% genuine about it." Catherine piped up: "[Maha's] mother was the world's sweetest person. Both Maha and her mother were so kind and opened up their home and held nothing back. During the taxi ride back, we were so emotional. I couldn't believe we were just now meeting these people," she said. Zsofia agreed, exclaiming, "We've been in the country for four months!" Catherine continued, "Exactly! Imagine if we had met them our first week. I feel like we would've been hanging out with them every week. And then, just considering that we had just met them, how kind they were was just shocking."

Maha and her family made sure to give the girls a good view of genuine Emirati culture throughout their visit. "[Maha's mother] said something along the lines of how as Emiratis, their duty is to introduce people to their culture and way of life," Zsofia said. "She heard that some people had been in the UAE for lots of years and they've never even met an Emirati family. She said, 'As Emiratis, we're the minority, and people are coming to our country, so it's our job to teach them about our way of living.' So they see it as a responsibility, and they were more than willing and happy to do everything they did for us."

For more about Catherine and Zsofia's iftar at Maha Al Shehhi's house, check out this (Arabic) news article by 24Media.


Suzana Saoud
IXO Publicity Specialist

From New York to Dubai: Suzy Sikorski's Journey

Suzy during our interview with her

'Studying abroad changes your life' may sound like an empty platitude, but in Suzy Sikorski's case, it's genuinely true. Suzy came to AUS in Fall 2014 as a junior international politics student from Fordham University, New York. However, she soon found out that her passion lay not in politics but in the arts - particularly Middle Eastern art. During her time in the UAE, Suzy immersed herself in the local art scene, interviewing local artists, studying Emirati art history, and working at art fairs and galleries. Suzy moved to the UAE to do more research after obtaining her Fulbright Scholarship and now works at Christie's Auctions in Dubai. She has found fulfillment and success through her extensive research on Gulf and Emirati art and artists, as well as a place where she feels inspired and at home: the UAE.

Early Beginnings

Suzy comes from a Polish-Italian family in Long Island, New York. "I grew up living a very American lifestyle," she said. "I was always interested in history and culture from a very young age. Even when I was just watching Aladdin or other cartoon movies about the East, I was so interested. I wanted to go there and experience different people, because I came from a very boxed-in community."

Coming from a small family, Suzy had big dreams. "I went to school and I studied international politics with the hope of potentially working for a foreign service," she said. "But I realized early on in my sophomore year what my skillsets were and I learned that I wasn't going to be ruling the world or President of the United States. That's just not where I'm excelling. Where I'm excelling is the arts, explaining an artwork to someone, feeling and empathizing with an artist, and interviewing the artists."

"Pulled in Both Directions"

Suzy ended up having a year planned in Morocco during her junior year. She planned everything from start to finish, and she was looking forward to perfecting her French and learning about Moroccan culture. Suzy remembers that her father once mentioned Dubai, saying, "Did you check out Dubai? It's big in documentaries, it's this cool place," but she didn't think much of it back then. "At the time, I was very much pulled in both directions; I was just coming of age in my sophomore year and I wanted to assert myself, I wanted to be financially independent," she said. One day she met a Jordanian professor of sociology who asked her, "Where can you see yourself in five years?" This was five years ago. Suzy replied that she saw herself as a specialist in Middle Eastern Arts at Christie's. "It gives me chills to think about it now," Suzy said.

The professor told her to cancel her entire trip to Morocco and head to Dubai. "I called my father, and he was like, 'I told you so!'" Suzy said. "The international exchange office at my school thought I was insane because I kept on switching. I applied last minute to the only school that my university was connected to, which was AUS. I had no idea about Sharjah; I came here not knowing anyone and was very open about it. It was always with the intention of working in Middle Eastern art," she said.

Time at AUS

"People just kind of knew me as the arts girl," she said. "People here helped me out a lot and I ended up interning at Ayyam Gallery in Alserkal Avenue. I also ended up helping out at galleries and art fairs. I did everything that I could to meet more friends that were not from IXO but were instead from the local population, so I just felt so at home here. It seemed like so many aspects of my life were being fulfilled; I was coming of age and growing up, and at that point, I wasn't talking to my parents as much. But you need that sometimes, to feel removed, to learn who you are, and that's exactly what happened."

Suzy says IXO was very helpful to her during her semester at AUS. "I’m so thankful to being with IXO; I'm a very independent person, but without them, and without that community and support, I would’ve felt very out of place. I made so many close friends here," she said.

In fact, through an IXO friend, Suzy was able to tap into the local Emirati art scene. Without even knowing in advance, Suzy met up with Abdulnasser Gharem, one of the most famous artists in Saudi Arabia, via her friend. In turn, Abdulnasser introduced her to the community of older Emirati artists. "At the time, I had no idea about the art communities within the Gulf, within Saudi Arabia, within the UAE. They're very close, and this topic turned into my thesis and my Fulbright Scholarship. So I spent over two years interviewing local Emirati artists and I fell in love with it. It fulfilled a need because there's not a lot of people documenting local art history here," she said.

Suzy stayed at AUS only for one semester, but she ended up coming back to the UAE two or three times afterwards before she even graduated. "I came back to always be here, to work at art fairs and galleries," she said. "Somehow I always found myself here."

Fulbright Scholarship and Research

For her Fulbright Scholarship, Suzy spent ten months right after graduation researching local Emirati artists. "It was so amazing," she said. "I met them, filmed them, interviewed them, recorded them - I have a website where I feature all these interviews, and it turned into a recording of my time here. It was really powerful, and so I'm very happy that I established myself before joining Christie's."

Suzy formed close bonds with the local artists she interviewed. "I became especially friendly with the older generation because they're so down-to-earth and welcoming. So it turned into me interviewing these artists, and I still do it, but it's been hard to balance with work. At the same time, it reinforces my role as a specialist in this category [of Gulf art], which not a lot of people are, and I think what allowed me this specialization is the access I had to these artists. It's not easy; you have to meet someone who will trust you to go to their private home. It's a very intimate setting that I would be in. It transcended research boundaries, and now I feel like they're part of my family. I've learned so much from different people, and that's the beauty of my job," she said.

Move to the UAE

When Suzy went to the UAE for her Fulbright Scholarship, everyone assumed it would be a temporary move and that she would return to the States - but she didn't. "I wanted to grow, I wanted to experience, and I knew where I was living then was not going to foster this productivity in my mind," she said. The decision to move came around June/July 2017 when she was finishing with her scholarship, and her job at Christie's came at the right time.

As she is an only child, Suzy's parents had some difficulty accepting her move, but they were eventually supportive. "Over time, you learn that your parents will always be supportive in the end. It’s your personal choice and it’s what you want, so you have to chase your dream," she said.

Christie's and Beyond

Suzy currently works at Christie's Auctions as a junior specialist. She is in charge of writing the entire catalog, which focuses on modern contemporary Middle Eastern artists, including from the Arab world and Iran, ranging from the early 1900s to today. So how has this job been for Suzy? "I’m living my life, I’m maturing, I’m growing up here," she said. "Especially working in Dubai, you grow up very quickly; it’s such a small group of people working within my team that you are exposed right away. I’m always meeting with collectors and learning about the market. It’s all part of the experience."

To bring things full circle, we asked Suzy where she sees herself five years from now. "I think I’ll still be here," she said. "There’s so much work to be done here, and I’m in a perfect position to grow and connect. I’m growing with the artists I’m meeting." Suzy also plans on staying here because of the deep connection she has developed with the UAE. "I genuinely found my soul here. I had many dinners with these local families who were so, so entirely different from my family back home, and I would just look up at the sky, in the beautiful majlis in the courtyard, and think, I feel so at home. I was surrounded by a very traditional Muslim family, and I just felt my soul was present; I felt like there was something larger that was bringing me here and I felt so connected. It was a very powerful feeling and that’s what makes me stay."


Suzana Saoud
IXO Publicity Specialist

Ara Azizbekyan, AUS Alum

Ara during his visit to our office

The positive impact of studying abroad lasts long after you return home, and it can translate into tangible benefits later on in life. We recently had a visit from Ara Azizbekyan, an Armenian AUS graduate who majored in management at the School of Business Administration. He studied abroad at George Washington University in Washington, DC, USA, in the Fall 2016 semester. After his graduation in May 2017, Ara landed a job as a consultant for Knowledge Workx. He says he wouldn't have gotten his current job without his study abroad experience, as Knowledge Workx were looking to hire people who had international experience and demonstrated intercultural intelligence and interest.

Ara was the only representative from the Middle East during his study abroad at GWU. During his time abroad, he was surprised to observe that the various friendship groups that formed at the university had nothing to do with nationality, but were instead founded on the basis of common interests and shared experiences. The cohort he belonged to ended up being super international and cross-cultural. Another difference Ara observed between the USA and the UAE was between their respective 'world views' - the USA world view focusing on a rule-based approach to determine 'right' or 'wrong,' versus the more relational and honor-based focus for determining 'right' or 'wrong' in the UAE. 

Ara's study abroad was also a gateway to his personal development; it was the first time he'd ever had to live by himself. He learned how to cook, do grocery shopping, do laundry, and just take care of himself (i.e. not just eating junk food). He lived with three 'strangers' in a two-bedroom apartment and had to learn how to set boundaries and respect his own and his roommates' personal space. And finally, he had to learn how to properly balance study, work, and play. 

Studying abroad gave Ara the desire to travel and explore more. He didn't really go through any kind of slump when he was abroad at all, but he found that he experienced severe reverse culture shock when he returned back to the UAE. He wishes that he'd been able to extend his study abroad to stay longer - unfortunately, he wasn't able to due to his graduation, and he wasn't able to go any earlier due to passport issues. Regardless, the experience had a very significant impact on his life, both personally and professionally.

Spending a semester in GWU isn't the only international study experience Ara has had. He has also completed an internship in Armenia as well as his undergraduate studies as an international student at AUS in the UAE (when his home country is Armenia). These experiences were a huge part of why Ara gained employment at Knowledge Workx, whose mission is "to be the globally preferred choice for interculturally intelligent consulting, coaching and learning." He joined the organization about a year and a half ago and has completed their ICI and DISC Certifications. While undertaking these certifications, he found that all of his own personal stories (shared with other class members) came from his study abroad experience at GWU. Ara currently designs training programs and develops them virtually for global participation. He finds that the Knowledge Workx tools and frameworks resonate with his experience.

Ara also remembered Osama Mafraji, who was his International Exchange Advisor and the predecessor of Grace Morales, who now occupies the same position. Before Ara left for GWU, Osama told him to call him anytime, day or night, if he experienced any issues while abroad. Osama had studied abroad through our program himself prior to his graduation and knew first-hand about the sort of personal journey that a study abroad experience can take a person on.  

Suzana Saoud
IXO Publicity Specialist