Here at Transracial we’re not much for TV. We indulge occasionally, but mostly at the gym watching Tyra or Wendy, typically on mute. We simply view the screens, check out the guests and add in our own, made-up dialogue — which we suspect is actually far more compelling than the read deal.
It’s fun.
Yet by missing out on actual TV, we’re a bit late arriving to golden nuggets of news like this: The plight of poor Dr. Lamees Hamdan, Dubai’s current cultural Enemy Number One.
Who is Dr. Hamdan, you ask? Well, she’s doing A LOT!
Raised in the USA and trained in medicine in Ireland, this UAE national is a busy entrepreneur, having created the fancy Shiffa line of spa and beauty products, which is used in posh resorts throughout the Middle East and around the world.
The brand is all about lotions and potions blended from exotic herb and essential oils from around the world. Shiffa is also altruistic, prominently informing customers that they give back (although to what, exactly, we could not tell you!).
Meanwhile, Dr. Hamdan is also a mom (Oprah loves her moms!!!) — raising four young kids (the youngest barely two months old) while looking after a five-bedroom household and tending to the needs of her businessman husband, Shehab.
This winning combo of mom, cosmetics guru, doctor and mellifluous-voiced hottie made Lamees a perfect subject for Oprah’s recent Women Around the World series — and this is where all of the trouble began.
The series (see video below) chronicled the every-day lives of every-day women in places like Denmark, Brazil, Turkey, Japan and Dubai.
Problem is, Dr. Hamdan — at least according to the Dubai masses — is hardly every-day. And Oprah’s reporting was riddled with the kinds of errors that remind you that Winfrey herself long ago lost touch with the little people.
First up, in her on-line intro to Hamdan’s segment, Oprah’s copy team writes:
This multicultural city is home to beautiful mosques, stone streets, high-end shopping and the world’s tallest building. Thanks to this country’s rich oil supplies, the government provides its citizens with free water, electricity and healthcare. The best part? No income tax!
Oil wealth, yes. Multi-cultural, perhaps. FREE WATER, ELECTRICITY AND HEALTHCARE — eh, not quite!
More worrisome, during the on-air segment, Oprah asked Hamdan about her outfit, a beautiful, billowy colorful tunic-cum-dress that covered her entire body, but left her head, neck and face revealed. Paired with slim sandals and perfect hair and make-up, Hamdan was definitely looking good!
She also served as a bit of a cultural ambassadors, explaining to Oprah (in between extolling the joys of Filipino maid-staff) that she was wearing a Jalabiya, a traditional dress, and that she chooses not to wear the Sheila, the national headdress or the far more modest Abaya – while her sisters choose to do so. She explained that the Sheila and Abaya are an extension of the UAE culture (and not required by Islam) — yet it is left as a choice for women to sport them or not.
Bad move.
Since the Oprah episode aired late last month, Hamdan has been at the center of a pan-Arabian firestorm from both folks who claim she’s misrepresented Islam and local Emiratis who wonder why they too are not receiving free electricity and water.
Anti-Hamdan types are all over the Internet, attacking Oprah’s team for their reporting skills and lamenting her choice of a rich, pampered, beauty product princess to represent their nation. Ecclesiastic types are up in arms over Hamdan’s characterization of the Abaya and Jalabiya.
They say she misrepresented Islam — not a good move (see: pre-Padma Salman Rushdie)
Wanna get a sense of the anti-Lamees vitriol? Just check out the comments at the end of THIS link.
But Hamdan-supporters are fighting back, wondering what all of the fuss is about and applauding the Dr. and Oprah for helping paint a pretty, Westernized face of Dubai.
With her connections to the beauty and style set, Hamdan has even spawned a fashion movement — with cute local Dubai creatives cleverly crafting the t-shirts above, which cheekily declare: Leave Lamees Alone: She Will Pay Our Bills.
Love it!
Meanwhile, back in Dubai, busy Dr. Hamdan seems to have retreated from the spotlight into her fancy family compound in between taking her girls to soccer practice, whipping up her latest batch of beauty products and…we suspect…not watching the Oprah Winfrey Show!
Part of the problem here, we reckon, is that Oprah never actually went to Dubai — opting instead to conduct her Hamdan interview via Skype! Which is interesting because Skype is actually banned in the UAE (perhaps Winfrey’s team sorted it all out with THESE people).
Considering her substantial resources, Oprah might consider placing a call to Emirates, tucking into one of their ultra-luxe First Class suites and popping over to Dubai herself to see how folks there really live. Gayle did — we met her there last year!
As for Dubai’s every-day women themselves – many, indeed do live like Dr. Hamdan. But as for the millions who labor to keep them in such splendor…..eh….not so much!
well, I’ve lived in Dubai for 10 years, and I’m Saudi so they concider me as local but I’ve never heard that ppl don’t pay their pills! cuz even locals do though it’s 70% cheaper for them than any other nationality and I find it fair! it’s their country! about the shaila and abaya.. all locals wear them because they’re muslims! only ppl who have chosen not to wear them, they don’t! and it’s ok with the goverment because it’s ur choice to do that or not! but when Dr.Lamees said that she said it in a way like if Islam doesn’t concider shaila and abaya as an impotrant thing though it is! it’s what muslims should really wear!
anyway, the fact she talked about something she doesn’t really know about is what made us as loyal ppl or locals got angry!
i can imagine!
their bills* sorry lol
Everyone is making fun of Lamees because of her “mistakes” during the interview. People make mistakes, like yourself for example, healthcare and water bills ARE FREE!!!!!! And of course Dr. Lamees was obviously talking about the locals of the UAE, not nonlocals. I mean seriously what country on earth would pay free healthcare and water bills for nonlocals? None.
she might have been talkin bout locals, but she was being asked about the country as a whole. And as the video (at least one thing that’s true) clearly stated: Dubai is populated mainly by other nationalities. Meaning: If you are representing Dubai, you can’t just represent a minority, even if it is the locals.
Second of all I’m working as a Doctor in Dubai and I keep wondering why I have to let so many patients go DAMA (Discharge against medical advice)due to financial reasons, if they don’t have to worry about healthcare…maybe I’m not living in the same Dubai after all…
Dr. lamees is right with everything she said, water and healthcare are FREEEEE. As for electricity we LOCALS pay only 10% of the total cost while the government pays 90% (almost free) for your information. As for sheila and abay its culture, or else why would some take it off in summer vacations?!!!. hijab is considered islam and covering body with anything even jalabeya (not necessary abaya).
Dear Fatma,
I must say (after reading your comments)that you sound to be quite like one of those pampered Emirati princesses (much like the living-in-a-fairlyland-far-from-reality-Dr.Lamees)! You almost sound as if it you hate non-locals and it would be a sin to be one! Do you even know who built the houses you live in,the roads you drive on,the schools you studied in and all the tall buildings lining the Dubai skyline? Ever seen a UAE national with a shovel in hand and a helmet on his head digging away never-ending mounds of sand in the sweltering heat? Have you ever seen the way these poor labourers live in your country and how they are treated? Get a grip and know the true state of affairs of how the other half lives in UAE. There are so many countries that do not differentiate between its nationals and non-nationals in terms of healthcare, water and electricity bills and many more! Why the United States and the United Kingdom are the best examples I could give you! (Travel more or get more knowledge to know how other countries operate before such commenting)
Whereas in the UAE, from salaries to education fees to house rents to healthcare, the ‘non-nationals’ end up earning the least and being billed the most! As a national, I’m hardly amazed that you are unaware of the real way of life of the masses living in the UAE. A true ‘Muslim’ country would not treat its citizens in one manner and non-citizens is another. Inequality is not an Islamic principle.Preaching is one thing, practising it is another.
By the way, Jalaabiya cannot be Hijab; unless of course one made it wide enough and thick enough so as to disguise the shape and the features of the female body, but then that would not look like a Jalaabiya, would it
Here’s a quote for you from the Holy Qur’an-
“O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks all over their bodies . That will be better, that they should be known (as free respectable women) so as not to be annoyed. And Allâh is Ever Oft¬Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّبِىُّ قُل لِّأَزۡوَٲجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَآءِ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ يُدۡنِينَ عَلَيۡہِنَّ مِن جَلَـٰبِيبِهِنَّۚ ذَٲلِكَ أَدۡنَىٰٓ أَن يُعۡرَفۡنَ فَلَا يُؤۡذَيۡنَۗ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ غَفُورً۬ا رَّحِيمً۬ا
(Holy Qur’an 33:59)
The fault is not of Oprah, it is of Lamees for getting carried way simply beacuase she was on Oprah Winfrey show and subsequent goof-ups to impress Oprah.
We all know what Dubai is all about.A huge expatriate community that works or rather slogs day and nite in blistering heat only to see short sighted locals like Lamees brag about having free electricity, water etc etc.Sure these privileges are enjoyed by locals but how? did they ever wondered. Ask the expats
DR. LAMEES IS NOOOOOOT A LOCAL! SHE IS ORIGINALLY JORDANIAN and married into a wealthy local, albeit “HUWALA” family.
It would have really been more appropriate for Oprah’s team to have chosen a better and more true representative for locals