www.womanthismonth.com November 2018 35 FEATURE | women in aviation Panel Moderator Captain Alia Al Twal An outstanding student – she graduated from school in her native Jordan with the second highest mark in the country – Alia convinced her family within a year to allow her to fulfil her dream of becoming a pilot. She started flying lessons in 2006, graduating from the Ayla Aviation Academy in Aqaba as a flight instructor and, at 21, was accepted at the Mid-East Aviation Academy in Amman as the youngest woman instructor in the region. After three years with the academy, Alia joined Royal Jordanian Airlines in 2011 and has gone from strength to strength since. With over 6,000 hours logged in jet aeroplanes, she has flown the Airbus family for Royal Jordanian Airlines as a first officer and is fast approaching the day when she will be handed her own command. Alia also holds the position of governor of the Arabian Section of The Ninety-Nines, the International Organisation of Women Pilots from more than 35 countries, which was founded in 1929 by 99 women pilots. Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to ever fly solo across the Atlantic was its first president. Today, it has more than 3,500 members from around the world and the Middle East chapter now has 40 members from countries including Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Algeria, Qatar and Kuwait. In 2016, Alia was made a ‘liveryman’ in the Honourable Air Pilot Company – a rare honour bestowed on only three Jordanians before her: the others being the late King Hussein, HRH Prince Faisal Al Hussein and HRH Prince Hamza Al Hussein. Despite flying commercial jets for her country’s airline, Alia has not lost her sense of adventure and, indeed, the sense of purpose which made her take up flying in the first place. Whenever she gets the chance, she still flies single-engine planes, performs aerobatics in World War I-era biplanes and goes skydiving at every opportunity she gets. It is that same spirit that made her determined to show not only her family and society, but the world in general, that when a woman sets her mind on doing something, not even a man can equal her passion and professionalism. Alia has just one message for women, in any field, who are told, or are made to feel, that they are in any way lesser than their male peers. “When women, who don’t dare to dream or look ahead hear the stories of other female pilots and see their achievements, it will inspire them.” Panelist Hend Alawadhi Hend Alawadhi has always had a fascination with aviation which resulted in her determination to defy her society's expectations and take up a career as an aeronautical engineer. Fortuitously, she heard about a new programme, set up by Tamkeen and Bahrain Airport Services, offering scholarships in aircraft engineering. Without telling anyone, she turned down her other (scholarship) offers and applied. Out of 500 hopefuls, she was one of just 30 to be chosen for the fouryear course. Following two years of theory, she embarked on two years with Gulf Air for training. She says: “As a woman in this field, I had to give twice as much as men to prove myself.” She was Gulf Air’s youngest engineer and says: “At the age of 23, I was signing off my first aeroplane as a full B1 engineer.” This means that as the aircraft engineer, she would fully certifying the plane’s fitness to fly. Over 10 years of 12-hour days, working with Gulf Air, one thing she was careful about was to make time for herself and preserve her sense of femininity, saying: “I don’t think it’s necessary to become masculine to succeed in a man’s world. You can still look like a woman, get your hair done, visit the salon – it’s about ability to do the job.” Interest in her role has led to TV and media appearances which, in turn, inspired an Instagram account @hend_alawadhi (Red Line Blog) where she shares pictures and lifestyle advice with her 38,000 followers. She says: “I love fashion, so that was a part of it, but I felt it was important because I would often get young girls and women asking me ‘How did you do it?’ and my answer to them is always ‘You have to shut out the negative voices, block some people no matter how close they are for a period of time and just concentrate on whatever it is that you really want.’ “A lot of girls give up and it’s not because they are not smart or capable but because of how men or society will treat them. “I think the main thing that helped me was that I just didn’t listen to the comments, believed in myself, got on with the job, and I learn as I go on.” These days Hend is with the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications as a senior airworthiness inspector, the only woman to hold this position.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk0MTkxMQ==