Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Marwan Al Maktoum is one of the leading figures in women empowerment in the United Arab Emirates. She has broken down gender barriers a number of times, creating a distinctive career in the aviation industry that continues to inspire young women in the Middle East and elsewhere. Sheikha Mozah holds the record as the first female Royal to become a licensed pilot. She’s also the first woman in the ruling family of Dubai to fly a Boeing 777 commercially. In 2019, she became the first woman to be bestowed the title of First Lieutenant Pilot at Dubai Police, driven by her commitment to serve her country. She was promoted to Captain Pilot in 2023.

In 2022, the young fearless Royal made another history as the first woman in the world to test pilot the AW609 tiltrotor, an aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies at the speed of a plane.

Sheikha Mozah, who will turn 27 on December 5, 2023, says her love for aviation began during a family holiday to the United Kingdom. She was 12 at that time. By 17, she became the youngest student enrolled at Oxford Aviation Academy, one of the world’s leading commercial pilot training schools, based in both Oxford Airport, in the UK, and Mesa Falcon Field Airport (Arizona) in the USA.

Her number one supporter was her mother who flew with her to the academy to see her settled in. She says it wasn’t easy navigating her way into the male- dominated field of aviation. But she did it.

“If we sit there and wait for our dreams to materialize, that day will never come. Many of us are really great at creating boundaries inside our minds,” says Sheikha Mozah. And so, her journey with greater responsibilities toward her country and others who look for inspiration continues.