It might seem that the role of women in aviation is a recent thing but, in truth, women have been taking to the skies almost as long as men. Just a few months after the first manned flight of the Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon, in 1783, French woman Marie Élisabeth Thible became the first female in the basket.
Since then, women have shown their determination to take on roles from engineers to maintenance and from air traffic control to pilots chalking up firsts across the board, particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries.
In recent years, our region has been at the forefront of the development of women’s roles in the aviation sector. In celebration of this, Woman This Month and our parent company Red House Marketing, in association with The Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications and Bahrain International Air Show 2018, are staging the inaugural Women In Aviation Conference.
Over the following pages, we tell you what it’s all about and introduce some of our special guests.
Women In Aviation Conference
Introducing the biggest women’s event taking place this month.
Taking place on the third day of Bahrain International Air Show, this ground-breaking conference takes the theme of ‘Championing the Promotion, Empowerment and Advancement of Women in the Aviation and Aerospace Industries (regionally and internationally)’.
It will provide a venue for Middle Eastern women, and others, to openly discuss the serious issues facing them in the pursuit of careers in the aviation and aerospace industries and offer practical solutions. The Women In Aviation Conference (WIAC) will act as a beacon to the current generation of prospective female aviation industry professionals looking for inspiration, leadership and guidance from those already in the field.
Delegates have been invited from around the world to take part and the major aims and objectives of the conference are:
• To encourage collaboration with aviation industry officials.
• The implementation of policies and processes for the empowerment of women through education, training and fast-track development programmes.
• To offer a roadmap for those contemplating a career in the industry.
Attendees will have the chance to establish a network of successful female aviation professions across all levels who will be able to work together to find creative solutions to the issues facing women in the industry.
It will present an opportunity for female aviation professionals to present their concerns to policy makers, both in person and through conference-generated reports.
And, very importantly, it will encourage aviation professionals not currently involved in gender equality issues in the industry, to support women in aviation.
His Excellency, the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Engineer Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed said: “We are proud, in Bahrain, to have women participate in different segments in the value chain of the aviation industry. We see them as air traffic controllers, as pilots, as engineers, within the Civil Aviation Authority, we see them even with the ground handling companies.
“However, there is a great opportunity here to expand and increase the number of women participating in this sector. We have not done enough – the whole region – to increase the participation of women and I am looking forward to the outcome of the event [Women In Aviation Conference]. I am sure they will discuss the subject and come up with recommendations or some solutions that we can consider, here, in Bahrain.”
The two-hour conference will take the form of two panel discussions, featuring a selection of submitted questions. These will be followed by a panelists’ Q&A in which delegates get to quiz our expert guests. The event will be livestreamed to reach an international audience.
Taking part in conjunction with the Bahrain International Air Show, those attending also receive admission to the show.
Panel Moderator
Captain Alia Al Twal
An outstanding student – she graduated from school in her native Jordan with the second highest mark in the country – Alia convinced her family within a year to allow her to fulfil her dream of becoming a pilot. She started flying lessons in 2006, graduating from the Ayla Aviation Academy in Aqaba as a flight instructor and, at 21, was accepted at the Mid-East Aviation Academy in Amman as the youngest woman instructor in the region.
After three years with the academy, Alia joined Royal Jordanian Airlines in 2011 and has gone from strength to strength since. With over 6,000 hours logged in jet aeroplanes, she has flown the Airbus family for Royal Jordanian Airlines as a first officer and is fast approaching the day when she will be handed her own command.
Alia also holds the position of governor of the Arabian Section of The Ninety-Nines, the International Organisation of Women Pilots from more than 35 countries, which was founded in 1929 by 99 women pilots. Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to ever fly solo across the Atlantic was its first president. Today, it has more than 3,500 members from around the world and the Middle East chapter now has 40 members from countries including Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Algeria, Qatar and Kuwait.
In 2016, Alia was made a ‘liveryman’ in the Honourable Air Pilot Company – a rare honour bestowed on only three Jordanians before her: the others being the late King Hussein, HRH Prince Faisal Al Hussein and HRH Prince Hamza Al Hussein.
Despite flying commercial jets for her country’s airline, Alia has not lost her sense of adventure and, indeed, the sense of purpose which made her take up flying in the first place. Whenever she gets the chance, she still flies single-engine planes, performs aerobatics in World War I-era biplanes and goes skydiving at every opportunity she gets. It is that same spirit that made her determined to show not only her family and society, but the world in general, that when a woman sets her mind on doing something, not even a man can equal her passion and professionalism.
Alia has just one message for women, in any field, who are told, or are made to feel, that they are in any way lesser than their male peers. “When women, who don’t dare to dream or look ahead hear the stories of other female pilots and see their achievements, it will inspire them.”
Panelist
Hend Alawadhi
Hend Alawadhi has always had a fascination with aviation which resulted in her determination to defy her society’s expectations and take up a career as an aeronautical engineer.
Fortuitously, she heard about a new programme, set up by Tamkeen and Bahrain Airport Services, offering scholarships in aircraft engineering. Without telling anyone, she turned down her other (scholarship) offers and applied. Out of 500 hopefuls, she was one of just 30 to be chosen for the four-year course.
Following two years of theory, she embarked on two years with Gulf Air for training. She says: “As a woman in this field, I had to give twice as much as men to prove myself.” She was Gulf Air’s youngest engineer and says: “At the age of 23, I was signing off my first aeroplane as a full B1 engineer.” This means that as the aircraft engineer, she would fully certifying the plane’s fitness to fly.
Over 10 years of 12-hour days, working with Gulf Air, one thing she was careful about was to make time for herself and preserve her sense of femininity, saying: “I don’t think it’s necessary to become masculine to succeed in a man’s world. You can still look like a woman, get your hair done, visit the salon – it’s about ability to do the job.”
Interest in her role has led to TV and media appearances which, in turn, inspired an Instagram account @hend_alawadhi (Red Line Blog) where she shares pictures and lifestyle advice with her 38,000 followers. She says: “I love fashion, so that was a part of it, but I felt it was important because I would often get young girls and women asking me ‘How did you do it?’ and my answer to them is always ‘You have to shut out the negative voices, block some people no matter how close they are for a period of time and just concentrate on whatever it is that you really want.’
“A lot of girls give up and it’s not because they are not smart or capable but because of how men or society will treat them.
“I think the main thing that helped me was that I just didn’t listen to the comments, believed in myself, got on with the job, and I learn as I go on.”
These days Hend is with the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications as a senior airworthiness inspector, the only woman to hold this position.
Panelist
Martyna Al-Qassab
Founder and managing director of Yalla Banat,The women’s motoring and development event which recently took place at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).
Since obtaining her MSc in sports management in her native Poland, Martyna has worked for more than 10 years in the sport industry fulfilling her passion to help individuals develop their potential by building communities and organisations with the right structure to enable people to excel and strive to be the best that they can be.
In 1999 Martyna obtained her gliding licence at the Aero Club, Czestochowa, and became an avid member of the flight community in gliders and single-engine aeroplanes with a passion for the open skies.
In 2002 she was the first female to be accepted by the Polish Air Force University, Deblin, to further pursue her aeronautical ambitions.
In the following years Martyna’s focus was on competing at international level as part of the Global Taekwon-Do Federation. She won the title at the World Cup Championship in the Semi and Light contact category from 1999 to 2004.
Moving to Bahrain as part of BIC’s start-up team to the launch the state-of-the-art karting circuit, Martyna’s passion for all things competitive remained and recently led her to get behind the wheel in the circuit’s 2000cc Challenge achieving a podium finish in the 2017 championship – the only female driver in the last 10 years to have done so.
Martyna lives in Bahrain with her husband Ramzi and their two young sons, Talal and Essa and has recently founded the Yalla Banat initiative built as a platform to celebrate women from across the region and inspire the next generation of innovators and achievers to transform their dreams into reality.
http://womeninaviationconference2018.com
