Dubai athlete surfs in traditional Emirati attire, pays tribute to second home
I wore an Emirati dress and went surfing to say thank you to a country that feels like my second home, reminiscing about a Dubai based athlete Manal Rostom. Manal Rostom, an Egyptian expat, wore a teal jalabiya, long necklace, gold tassa headgear, sheer sheila, and carried a UAE flag while wakeboard surfing.
As a sign of appreciation towards a UAE that I hold dear to my heart she said: 'I have been in this country for nearly fourteen years and I can say that no other country receives us better than the UAE does. Yes! I’ve been in previous countries but the UAE is unique. I don’t want to be anywhere else. This video was shot with my emotions. from my heart’.
On various social networks the video of the brave act of Manal has surpassed four hundred views. On social networking sites the number of views of Manal's video has exceeded four hundred thousand. You're right some people think it's AI" she laughed. " But I can say it was fully real and it was different than what you expect. I am actually shocked by the amount of love people seem to have for this content.
Here’s the video posted by Manal on her social media.
Last-minute idea
Although Manal has engaged in multiple stunts before, including an abaya while surfing she had never in the past planned the stunts in her last few days as she did this one in friendly communion with the UAE’s National Day. “I was at the Dubai Ladies Club, where I coach, when I saw a woman wearing a jalabiya of the same colour as I was and playing a violin. She looked absolutely beautiful,” she said. “She was performing for a national day activation and I just really fell in love with the colour of her jalabiya.
“This was at around 10 in the morning and I had already booked a wake boarding session at 2.45. During the ten minutes before the session my imagination began to wonder how it would be to go behind a jet wearing a traditional Emirati picnic. I started to inquire around the place about where I would find these dresses and ornaments in such a short time span. I was told to go to Global Village but I had no time to acquire it.
Time was not on Manal’s side, and I had to secure traditional dresses from two locations in Dubai spending about Dh1,500 to pull off the stunt. $450 to have the whole look including clothes and jewellery. “I bought the clothes from a shop in Al Quoz and the jewellery from Satwa,” she said.
As per her declaration, Manal has not surfed for about two months and thus also had a few issues while shooting. `I managed to get it right,’ she remarked. `I wanted to know where they carried the head piece as it could not be worn on the head while surfing and it was planned that I would wear it under my robe. It was not easy putting the head piece on; over time, I was able to get it off. After all the clothes were on the driver of the boat gave me the UAE flag. It was a complete surf for about a minute or so. I had managed to wear quite a few clothes with most of them being the entire flag.
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