< Previous60 Harper’s Bazaar Qatar Spring 2024 Colour Shifter Eye Palette in Infi nite Nude, QR85, Sephora Collection. Full Sleeve Long + Defi ned Tubing Mascara, QR110, KVD Beauty, both available at Sephora Full look, Nora’s own. Ring, QR5,150; Cuff , QR18,650, Azza Fahmy HBQ_034_48-63_Nora_13144503.indd 6029/01/2024 09:2161 Harper’s Bazaar Qatar Spring 2024 The INTERVIEW Colour Shifter Eye Palette in Infi nite Nude, QR85, Sephora Collection. Full Sleeve Long and Defi ned Tubing Mascara, QR110, KVD Beauty, both available at Sephora Full look, Noura’s own. Ring, QR13,470; Cuff , QR18,650, both Azza Fahmy HBQ_034_48-63_Nora_13144503.indd 6129/01/2024 09:21Master Metallics Palette, QR195, Makeup By Mario. Mothership IX Huetopian Dream Eyeshadow Palette, QR480, Pat McGrath Labs. Best Skin Ever, QR95; High Precision Eyeliner, QR75; Size Up Mascara, QR95; Natural Eff ect False Eyelashes, QR60, all Sephora Collection, all available at Sephora Headpiece, Nora’s own HBQ_034_48-63_Nora_13144503.indd 6229/01/2024 09:2163 Harper’s Bazaar Qatar Spring 2024 And did she face any specifi c obstacles because she’s a woman? “No, no, we don’t have this anymore in Saudi Arabia. Th ey’re supporting women in a very wide way,” she assures. “In fact, if they have two options with the same level of certifi cation, they will defi nitely choose the woman!” Nora also qualifi ed as a tent-pegging trainer, another ancient mounted sport that involves charging at a tent peg in the ground and attempting to uproot it with a lance, spear or sword. Part of the course requited her to compete locally. “I was the only lady and there was no audience, it was a bit intense,” she remembers, not that it stopped her from being one of the top performers. “After that I also went to Jordan for the Ladies World Cup in tent pegging. It was the fi rst participation of the Saudi team and I got fourth place among 34 ladies.” Nora’s main focus now is spreading her knowledge and skills at her own training centre – set up in a government-provided space that also houses a variety of other equestrian sports. “I have had 20 horseback archers in total graduate from my school. I’m so proud of them because they have the same mentality as me that they’re doing it for the love of the history not just the sport,” she smiles. “Th is certifi cation means I now have the opportunity to spread this awareness among other women too, we have more women doing tent pegging and we even have four or fi ve ladies who have become certifi ed trainers, but with horseback archery I’m still the only certifi ed female trainer.” Putting the lost art back in the headlines has made Aljabr somewhat of a regional celebrity, and this month she adds Sephora Voices campaigner, which highlights women’s empowerment, to her list of accolades. “Th e nature of my job means I don’t require too much make-up but I centre my skincare routine around sunblock, a little bit of make-up and eyeliner,” she shares. “I’m all about celebrating inner beauty and strength, and although I don’t cover up my face on normal days when I wear a hijab, I do cover my face when I’m doing any media because I don’t want people to focus on the way I look, I want people to focus on my skills. I’m also sending a message to show ladies that you can show your beauty not only through your face and body but through your skills, strength and power.” Nora’s words and indeed actions certainly do make her the embodiment of female empowerment. But what does she think about the more Western narrative of Saudi women, that maybe doesn’t lean into this so much? “I always tell people that Saudi women have always been powerful, they’ve always been skilled, but they didn’t have the opportunity to show this. And once we got the opportunity to show who we are, we started quickly seeing Saudi ladies in diff erent fi elds such as sports, beauty, science and medicine,” she says. Nora is seen by many Saudi women as a role model and she has a message for all women. “Find that thing that you want to do that gives you strength and power and do it. If you haven’t found it yet just keep looking. Or maybe you did fi nd it but now want to try something else… just go and fi nd it again!” “Women used to learn archery, sword and spear techniques – mostly for hunting, fun, or self-defence” remembers Nora. “And he was a reader, had old books, and he shared this one book with me which was fi rst written around 1,000 years ago. It was about Arab archery, how to manufacture bows and arrows, and the diff erent areas of archery including horseback archery.” It was seminal. “Th at’s when I started trying to visualise the past, how they used to ride the horses, how they dressed, and I thought about how I could connect to that past. I started doing it through clothing, starting to wear the traditional women’s outfi ts while I did the horseback archery.” Nora was particularly interested in the way Saudi women through the ages had engaged with both horses and the mounted sports she was practicing. “Women used to learn archery, sword techniques and spear techniques and it’s possible that a few were also fi ghters, but they mostly used to learn for either hunting, fun, or for self defence. Generally they didn’t go to war,” she explains. “And the Arabian horses were seen as part of the family. A lot of poetry describes the relationship between men and women and their horses: the love used to be so deep that they sometimes would feed their horses before they fed their own children.” Nora had become a skilled mounted archer and incredibly knowledgable about the sport and its history, so decided to visit Istanbul to get certifi ed as a horseback archer and trainer at the prominent Mamluk Academy. But she wasn’t satisfi ed with that qualifi cation – she wanted to teach people in Saudi Arabia with a verifi cation from within the Kingdom, but it was a certifi cation that didn’t exist… yet. “I spoke with the Saudi Equestrian Federation and there was a course to be a horseback archery judge which I did.” But it would take another three months of conversation before the trainer course she really wanted would became available. “I headed to Riyadh for the week-long course where I met all the old horseback archers in Saudi Arabia. We were around eight people, and I was the only woman. We all graduated as certifi ed horseback archery trainers from the Ministry of Sports in Saudi Arabia and from the Saudi Equestrian Federation.” Nora was the fi rst to graduate the new course and also the only woman, something that may have been impossible just a few years earlier. “It feels so powerful, so amazing, because it was hard for me to get this certifi cation to happen, there were no horseback archery schools already and there was a lack of information available,” she admits. “Some people think it was so easy to reach this point but I faced a lot of obstacles along the way, I fell down a lot, but I stood up and kept going because this is more than sport – it’s our history. And not only for Arabs, but for everyone doing archery around the world.” The INTERVIEW HBQ_034_48-63_Nora_13144503.indd 6329/01/2024 09:2264 Harper’s Bazaar Qatar Spring 2024 HBQ_034_48-63_Nora_13144503.indd 6429/01/2024 09:2265 Harper’s Bazaar Qatar Spring 2024 The INTERVIEW All Stars Amazonian Clay Collector’s Set, QR240, Tarte. Lash Sculpt Lengthening and Volumising Mascara, QR175, Anastasia Beverly Hills, both available at Sephora Full look, Nora’s own Editor in Chief: Olivia Phillips. Make-Up: Kasia Domanska. Senior Producer: Steff Hawker. Styling Assistant: Merhan Raafat HBQ_034_48-63_Nora_13144503.indd 6529/01/2024 09:2266 HarpersBazaarArabia.com January 2024 The JEWELS DESERT DR E A M Photography by CARLA GULER Styling by TENNILLE YAMASHITA Embark on new adventures as you journey among the otherworldly Joshua trees HBQ_034_064to071_Fashion - Joshua Tree_13144505.indd 6629/01/2024 09:2667 HarpersBazaarArabia.com January 2024 This page: Dress; Shoes; Sunglasses, all Stylists own Opposite page: Dress, QR19,000; Shoes, QR3,400; Ring, QR2,300, all Givenchy HBQ_034_064to071_Fashion - Joshua Tree_13144505.indd 6729/01/2024 09:2668 HarpersBazaarArabia.com January 2024 The FASHION Top; Glasses; Earrings, POA, all Schiaparelli HBQ_034_064to071_Fashion - Joshua Tree_13144505.indd 6829/01/2024 09:2769 HarpersBazaarArabia.com January 2024 The FASHION Top, QR3,900; Skirt, POA; Shoes, QR6,100, all Rabanne HBQ_034_064to071_Fashion - Joshua Tree_13144505.indd 6929/01/2024 09:27Next >