How Arab women are rewriting the rules of identity and empowerment

Khaleej Times

a day ago

Amid life's many businesses, sparkling accomplishments, and hard knocks, we often encounter rankling questions that blow the wind out of our sails. Questions like 'Who am I?', 'What do I want out of life?', and 'Where am I headed in this mad rush?' leave us suddenly adrift, realising how far we've strayed from who we once were as individuals, professionals, and participants in society. The search for answers leads us into a labyrinth of doubts and fears, and sooner or later, we find ourselves in need of a lighthouse — someone to steer us gently back home. Back to ourselves.
It was in one such muddying moment that Asmaa Al Kuwari, now a multi-award-winning executive and life coach, stumbled upon a training programme that changed the course of her life. What began as an
attempt to reclaim her bearings during a period of inner unrest eventually became her mission.
In a world that often defines women and their typecasted roles before they discover who they are, Al Kuwari chose to unbend all that was hoisted upon her by tradition and society. A certified coach, TEDx speaker, and author of Back to THAT, she has become a guiding voice for self-actualisation in a region where identity is often prescribed before it is understood. Her work is not just a career. It is a calling: To help Arab and Muslim women navigate the maze of societal roles and cultural expectations, and return to the essence of who they truly are.
Al Kuwari, whose early years were spent in the US, was raised for the most part in Qatar and it was here that she began to sense there was more to her personality and purpose than what had been predetermined by societal norms. 'This combination, even though it might have started as a culture clash for me, taught me how much of our identity is shaped for us, not by us,' she says with the clarity of someone who now knows both what she wants from life and what she hopes to give back to it. That inner friction between who we are expected to be and who we truly are, she adds, became the very foundation of her life's work.
She staunchly believes that a woman's personal growth must be both respectful of her roots and revolutionary in spirit. From this insight emerged a coaching framework that gave women full agency over their lives — helping them unlearn what no longer serves them and pick again from new options, this time with intention.
'Helping them to choose what aligns with their true selves, their values, their faith, and their vision for the life they want, that's my objective now,' she says with a conviction that bears the quiet power of someone who has walked through the darkness and now holds a torch for others.
It was this desire to help women who had the power and potential but lacked a roadmap to retrace their way back to authenticity that led her to write her Back to THAT. The journey hadn't been easy for Al Kuwari. She had to confront resistance from all quarters, starting from her immediate family to extended segments of her relations, to whom her endeavours were not only new but also a bit radical. But in time, they were convinced that she was on a path to improve lives of women in the region, and that it didn't come at the cost of giving up traditional values and religious compliances.
What she was seeking to achieve was to allow women to tap into their potential that they kept under wraps for long, and letting them find their own place in the world. She held space for them, not to rebel, but to reclaim; to come back to their own centre after years of surrendering their desires to societal dictates and generational expectations.
Her coaching wasn't about defiance; it was about alignment; about helping women step into their power without veering out of their truth.
In Back to THAT, she offers more than self-help strategies. She offers companionship through guided reflections, value-based practices, and gentle prompts that nudge women towards clarity. 'It's not just about awareness,' she says. 'It's about the action you take when you create that awareness.' The book thus becomes a conversation between the reader and her forgotten self, and a manual for her to follow to fruition. Al Kuwari believes that true societal transformation must begin with women, who form the foundation of families and communities. She sees women as the origin point of generational influence — first as wives, then as mothers and grandmothers — and therefore considers their empowerment essential to lasting change.
There are women who recognise the limitations placed on them by society, but lack the courage to act. And there are others who are willing to break the mould and redraw the contours of their lives, but don't know where to begin. It's the latter who find in Al Kuwari's guidance a valuable and feasible formula to empowerment. In a world where external validation often dictates identity, she gently turns women inward, helping them tap into their inner reserves and claim their rightful place in society, and in their personal and professional spheres.
She teaches them how to draw boundaries not as lines of defence, but as spaces of becoming personal sanctuaries where they can rise, perform, and unlock parts of themselves they never knew existed. Yet, this journey is far from easy, she reveals. Most women who come to her grapple with deeply ingrained mindsets and limitations that have long shaped their sense of self. The biggest challenge, she says, is guilt for wanting more, for choosing themselves and for not conforming to deep-set conditioning.
'This guilt and emotional tug-of-war can keep women stuck in survival mode. In my coaching work, I help them name those emotions, confront them with compassion, and take small, courageous steps toward what truly matters to them.' To guide them from 'performance to presence' and assure them that their struggles are neither unique nor isolating, Al Kuwari founded the 'You're Not Alone' community — a space for like-minded women to gather, share stories, engage in meaningful conversations, and hold one another accountable. It's here that support transforms into strength, and individual narratives of self-doubt are rewritten into collective affirmations of worth, courage, and purpose.
'That's the magic of collective support; it normalises growth and gives you mirrors to your own strength. Women from the community have come together to collaborate for projects, and some have found their best friends from the community,' she reflects with a pride becoming of someone who holds the distinction of being the first Qatari woman to lead the International Coaching Federation Chapter in Doha (ICFD).
The many awards and recognitions that have come her way may have amplified her voice and broadened her reach, but Al Kuwari doesn't let them define her worth. To her, they are instruments of visibility meant to shine light on the work she does, the message she carries and the countless women who find themselves reflected in her story. The accolades are, above all, a responsibility, a reminder to stay accountable to the purpose that drives her.
Her remarkable journey from a perplexed young woman unsure of her path to a visionary leader for Arab and Muslim women across the Middle East underscores one truth: self-actualisation isn't a luxury. 'It's the fulfillment of our purpose. I always say God has created each and every one of us with a sole purpose to achieve in this world before our time is up. When we deny that need, we shrink, we settle, we live on survival mode. But when we honour it, we expand, we create, we become; and that's the ultimate goal.'
Al Kuwari is now focused on building an international digital community for Arab and Muslim women, expanding the reach of her book so that it may serve as a beacon for those ready to take a transformative step forward, and scaling her coaching programmes globally. She also plans to certify future coaches through a self-created methodology rooted in cultural awareness and human-centred growth.
As life coaching continues to evolve in the region, she envisions it becoming a profound tool for healing, growth, and leadership — one grounded not in western models, but in personal values and local identity. Her mission is clear: to give women the tools to shape the lives they yearn for, and to enable them to become the protagonists of their own powerful stories. As she affirms, such initiatives will grow more culturally aligned, and 'more Arab women will rise — not just as clients of change, but as creators of it.'