The shadow of the woman wins

BY PMA RASHEED
The Gulf Today, 7 May 2009, (Photo by Mohammed Rasheed)

Her shadow captured in her own photography speaks about her identity in her land. She captured the snap from part of a desert land of the UAE, and wanted to declare the world that the UAE women are not facing any kind of identity crisis.

The budding photographer is Asma Ahmad Darwish, who won the first place Zayed University's (ZU) 2009 edition of Noor Ali Rashid, students photography awards in the theme titled the UAE land.

She is a third year bachelor's student for international studies in ZU, and extremely proud of being a prosperous Emirati woman with a different identity.

"I didn't win last year, so I put more efforts this year to participate in the contest and by winning the first place I tried to prove that the UAE women are not behind the curtain of the mainstream world," said Asma on the sidelines of the award ceremony.

Fatima Mohammed Rashid Al Nokhatha uses Canon d-540 camera, and has won two prizes in the Noor Ali photography competition including, second place in the UAE leaders theme and third place in the theme the UAE people.

"My winning work has been captured when Sheikh Mohammed Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan attended the Abu Dhabi Yatch show recently. Meanwhile, the snap of a man surfing in Abu Dhabi corniche helped me win in the theme of the life of UAE people," said Fatima.

She is a third year bachelors student in public relations and management in ZU's college of communication.

I started taking photographs with my mobile cam a couple of years ago. But when I studied photo journalism as part of my university education, I took it seriously and wanted to put a professional approach to photography," she added.

About 24 outstanding performers participated in the Noor Ali Rashid Photography awards 2009 were honoured on Wednesday at ceremony held at Cultural and Scientific Association hall in Dubai.

ZU's students Meera Al Alili and Raisa Al Zarouni came in the first place in the categories titled the UAE leaders and the UAE people respectively.
In the video section, ZU's Athra Al Humaidi and Noora Al Hajeri have emerged as the first prize winners, while HCT Sharjah Women's College's students Huda Safar and Muna AK came in the second and third places respectively.

Sheikh Saeed Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum has presented awards to winners in the glittering ceremony attended by the country's most celebrated photo genius Noor Ali Rashid, Dr Abdur Rahman Al Owais, minister of culture and youth, Dr Suleiman Al Jassim, ZU vice-president, Dr Hamdi Salah, ambassador of Egypt to the UAE and Carlos D'zousa, minister of culture and sports of Mozambic.

Noor Ali photography award has been designed to tribute the UAE's royal photographer Noor Ali Rashid by recognisng the talents of upcoming student photographers from the country's accredited universities and colleges.

"The competition is aimed at encouraging the young talents in photography and videography focussing their calibre on visual bodies of work that capture the essence of the UAE's land, people and leaders," said Dr Suleiman Al Jassim, vice-president of ZU university.