Exclusive: Her Highness Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi Doesn’t Want to Be “The Only Woman in the Room” as She Breaks Boundaries in Publishing and Fashion

Her Highness Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi isn’t content with letting women sit on the sidelines. The United Arab Emirates-based royal, who is the daughter of the ruler of Sharjah, His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, has broken down barriers for women in the publishing world—and she’s now moving into fashion. Speaking to Marie Claire, Sheikha Bodour says she “felt that there was a lot of work to do” in terms of leveling the playing field for women in business, especially in the Arab world.

Sheikha Bodour founded her publishing company, Kalimat Group, two decades ago after her children “really didn't like the kind of books they were reading in Arabic and they wanted something more interesting.” Her Highness tells Marie Claire that after she became the second-ever female president of the International Publishers Association (IPA), she “realized that there were very few women in leadership positions” in the industry.

Sheikha Bodour shares that while “there are a lot of women in publishing in general,” they tend to work on “the more creative side” like design and PR versus taking on leadership roles. She adds that in her role as president of the IPA, “I was the only woman in the room in many cases.”

For Sheikha Bodour, it gave her the impetus to launch PublisHer, a global platform to empower women in the industry through networking events, mentorship opportunities and an awards program.

“What I found through my interactions with publishers is that men always have a network and we didn't have a network as women,” she tells Marie Claire. “So I started organizing dinners at book fairs, events, just bringing women together so that they could get to know each other, learn from each other and give each other opportunities.”

Sheikha Bodour is also an author herself, and in her latest work, Let Them Know She Is Here: Searching for the Queen of Mleiha, the royal goes in search of the Arabian queens of the past that have been largely erased from history. She says that her goal with the book was to “ignite a light in women to really look at history, and to learn about what has happened in the past and use it as a leap pad for the future.”

When asked if she sees similarities between these historical queens and the struggles of women today, Sheikha Bodour says there are many parallels. “Yes, I feel it's all very connected and feel that women are reclaiming their space and their rightful positions in society in general,” she says. “I think as women, we are reclaiming that rightful place that was perhaps taken away from us in the past.”

Another area Sheikha Bodour is reclaiming for women is the fashion industry. She says that her new fashion brand, Innana Reborn, is closely tied to these lost queens she writes about. The brand held its inaugural fashion show on April 4 in Mleiha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s connected to the traditions and stories in her book.

She tells Marie Claire that when she started researching the queens in Let Them Know She Is Here, she also looked into “what they would wear and how they would look.” This includes everything from “the jewelry and the incense” to “perfumes, and the rituals, and everything they were doing.”

From there, Sheikha Bodour set about designing a collection that paid tribute to the spirit of these queens—but suited for today’s woman. The collection of clothing and jewelry is currently available at Bait Elowal, the restaurant and cultural destination launched by Her Highness in Sharjah, and will soon be available online.

“The way we talk about the brand, it's important that women feel like the dresses are like armor,” she says. “I always say that fashion is like armor. They wear it and they go out into the world and this is how they walk in the world, with their head up and feeling very confident about themselves.”

Sheikha Bodour says that fashion is an industry that can “make women feel less worthy,” and her goal is to overcome that. “I want to be in an industry that makes women feel amazing,” she shares. “I want a woman to feel like she looks gorgeous no matter what size she is, how old she is.”

Her Highness adds, “I'm not going to be following the trends or doing things the way the fashion industry sort of encourages you to do. I want to really build this organically and really make it about empowering women.”

Sheikha Bodour’s sense of entrepreneurship is already extending to the next generation. Her 7-year-old daughter, Sheikha Meera bint Sultan Al Qasimi, has her own budding business, too—a fashion brand for young women called Meera & Alya. Her latest collection is inspired from the children’s classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and with Sheikha Bodour paving the way, the sky is the limit.