HE Nabeela Abdulla Al Mulla An Extract from ‘Women of Kuwait : Turning Tides’ by Chaitali B Roy (Haranand Publications 2016) Ambassador Nabeela Abdulla Al Mulla has created history several times in her illustrious career, and she has done it not only for herself, but for her country and her region. In 1993, Ambassador Al Mulla made history when she became the first woman ambassador from Kuwait and from the GCC, a region, which has since then seen an encouraging rise in the number of female diplomats. In 2002, she repeated the feat by becoming the first woman from the Middle East and South Asia to chair the Board of the elite International Atomic Energy Agency. In 2004, she made history yet once again by becoming the first Arab woman to lead her country at the United Nations. Nabeela Al Mulla joined the Foreign Service and rose through the ranks at a time when the women’s suffrage movement was in full swing in Kuwait. With her appointment as Kuwait’s first woman Ambassador, she became an influential role model not only in her country but in the region. Shortly afterwards, women diplomats from Kuwait, and elsewhere in the GCC followed in her footsteps with important postings around the world. “A lot depends on the person, the country and the opportunities available. Circumstances call the shot, and it depends on the person if she rises to the occasion or not,” observes the Ambassador. As a young girl growing up in the midst of a large extended family, Nabeela had no inkling that her future was in diplomatic service. Those were happy days of being cosseted by her older sisters and of tomboyish pranks with her nearer to age brothers. “I had a loving family. I was the youngest girl of 10 children, and my sisters, who were far older than me, mothered me. They dressed me up and took me to school while I was still very small because they didn’t want to leave me behind,” she says with a wistful smile. Young Nabeela went with the flow. “I addressed my eldest sister as ‘Mama’. In fact, if I yelled ‘Mama’ my mother and sister would both respond,” she laughs. Nabeela’s brothers were her partners in crime. She spent her days running around with them. “When my two younger brothers got their bicycles, they got one for me as well.” Nabeela Al Mulla earned her Bachelors in Political Science from the American University of Beirut. When she came back to Kuwait in 1968, she went on to embrace life and whatever it had to offer with all its challenges and uncertainties. “I became a career diplomat by default,” she chuckles. “Frankly speaking, I wanted to teach and do research, but unfortunately, when I came back to Kuwait, I found out that the University scholarships that were offered for higher studies abroad was frozen.” The Undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry, a family friend, had offered her a job earlier, but Nabeela had been unsure. However, with the immediate prospects of a scholarship abroad drying up, she decided to take him up on his offer. “I could have also joined the family business, (Incidentally the Al Mulla Group, the family business is one of the leading and fastest growing groups in the Middle East with more than 40 companies), but I had no liking for business,” she says dismissively. Nabeela Al Mulla was 20 at that time, and with the resilience and enthusiasm of youth, she tackled her first assignment at the foreign ministry. In later years, while serving in