19 hours ago
Nouf Alosaimi Is Leading Saudi Women Into the Depths of the Red Sea
Nouf Alosaimi Is Leading Saudi Women Into the Depths of the Red Sea
Through Alosaimi's leadership, Red Sea Citizen is now one of Saudi Arabia's most influential dive groups, helping more people reconnect with the ocean - and with themselves.
She trained to be one of Saudi Arabia's first female dive instructors. Now, she's helping others find healing 30 metres below the surface.
Before Nouf Alosaimi built one of Saudi Arabia's most influential diving communities, she had never even seen a scuba diver. Today, she's a certified instructor, conservation advocate and founder of Red Sea Citizen - a club that's trained hundreds of women and helped reshape how Saudis experience the ocean.
Alosaimi's work has helped open up a world that once seemed off-limits, leading group dive trips, offering certifications and advocating for marine protection. And while her roots are in Saudi, her vision reaches far beyond it.
Alosaimi's story started with a holiday in Egypt.
At 21, Alosaimi was studying tourism management in the UK when she booked a boat trip in Sharm El-Sheikh, looking for a quick escape from gloomy British weather. Like most tourists, she wanted to see the reefs - but the holiday adventure became the start of a lifelong one.
'The moment I saw the corals, the fishes, the colours - oh my God, I was hooked," Alosaimi told SceneNowSaudi. "I said, 'I lost a lot of time on land. This exists? There is no way I'm spending more time on land.''
That dive launched a journey that would take her from an underwater photographer in Egypt to a certified scuba instructor and founder of Red Sea Citizen, a Saudi-based diving community that empowers women through education, conservation and deep connection with the sea.
Though it started as a women-only initiative called Pink Bubbles Divers, it evolved into a community that still centres women but welcomes everyone, offering dive trips, training and environmental awareness programmes. Through Alosaimi's leadership, Red Sea Citizen is now one of Saudi Arabia's most influential dive groups, helping more people reconnect with the ocean - and with themselves.
'Scuba diving is healing. It disconnects you from everything in the world… underwater, your mind just stops," she explained. "You only think about the fish passing in front of you, the coral.'
She sees all kinds of women join: those in their 20s, others in their 50s, many of whom are navigating change after divorce, after loss, or, in many cases, after COVID.
'Especially after COVID, there were a lot of women wanting to dive. Because when you try to meditate on land, you cannot stop thinking. But underwater, it happens naturally. You hear no voices... only your breath.'
A key aspect of Alosaimi's mission is teaching others how to safely journey under the sea, and how to understand it. Her work is about consciously connecting with the sea and its inhabitants. She's an outspoken advocate for marine conservation and is especially passionate about misunderstood species... particularly sharks.
'I love sharks. They're so majestic. But they're misunderstood." She explains how the media paints the sea creature as villains, though the odds of dying from a shark attack are lower than being killed by a falling coconut. They're an essential part of the ocean and the protection of reefs.
'They help keep the ocean clean, and we breathe more than 50% of our oxygen from the ocean," Alosaimi said. "We need them.'
One question Alosaimi is always asked is: Isn't diving dangerous?
'Driving is dangerous, too, if you don't follow the rules. It's the same with diving. I always say: try it. If you like it, you'll find a new world. If you don't, at least you tried.'
A huge part of her initiative is the community. Each year, she leads women-only trips across the Red Sea, spending days aboard live-aboard dive boats where they explore reefs by day and sharing meals by night.
'We eat, sleep, dive, repeat,' she says.
Her role is both instructor and guide - showing her groups where to look, pointing out lionfish and coral formations, communicating underwater with simple hand signs and a calm presence. She notes how some divers become different people underwater.
'Some of them are so funny. They joke. Others are completely calm. You really get to see another side of people.'
She's hoping to expand internationally, and take the Red Sea Citizen to dive sites around the world. She dreams of one day owning a dive boat of her own.
'If you live in the moment and do what you love now, tomorrow will be beautiful.'
But even as the organisation grows, her mission remains the same: to help others connect and heal through the beauty of the ocean.
