The UAE is only 50 years old. Over these five decades, it has witnessed exponential growth –  becoming one of the most modern, cosmopolitan centres of the world.

But despite it all, the fact cannot be ignored – that only one or two generations back, the people of the Emirates were barely emerging from their traditional, Bedouin (nomadic) lifestyles with outdated notions regarding the distinct roles of men and women in society. Men – stereotypical bread-earners, and women – stereotypical homemakers.

While the exceptional vision of the country’s leadership has propelled it to the forefront of the 21st century, traditional mindsets and old-school ways of thinking still prevail in a majority of Emirati families.

When it comes to women’s empowerment, the shift in recognition has been slow and gradual. Women hold top business and government positions, become pilots, F1 racers, and more, but a strong patriarchal culture, conservative family values, and community stigma prevent them from doing a lot of things such as publicly performing theatre, dance, or even poetry – leaving a lot of room for the desire to feel truly liberated.

The idea was to drive the narrative on true and complete women’s empowerment in the UAE by bravely giving a voice to generations of Emirati women whose artistic self-expression has been silenced for centuries.

On Emirati Women’s Day, we collaborated with renowned Emirati poet and Chairwoman of the UAE Writer’s Union – Al Hanouf Mohammed, to take a bold and inspirational step (that was until now, considered unthinkable) despite the potential backlash from traditional Emirati communities.

With a public performance in UAE’s busiest public district – she became the first-ever woman to perform traditional Azi poetry, and that too – leading an all-male choir. Her poem, acknowledged the historic achievements and contributions of Emirati women that have been completely left out of the over 250-year history of this art form.

Emirati Women’s Day was the perfect occasion to launch the initiative. But to truly get noticed and trigger a conversation, we needed to collaborate with a renowned personality.

Which is why, we approached Al Hanouf Mohammed – a published poet and author, and Chairwoman of the UAE Writer’s Union.

We collaborated with her to write the poem and in it, pay tribute to the most iconic Emirati women in the nation’s history, who have served as inspirational role models for generations of Emirati women everywhere.

Al Hanouf became the face of our PR-led campaign, and following her initial public performance, she took the Azi poem to multiple platforms – from local media interviews and public school events to international conferences, literature festivals and special events.

With this, we successfully reached thousands of Emirati girls and women – and inspired them to confidently share their voices online.

Al Hanouf’s first performance took place in UAE’s busiest public district on Emirati Women’s Day and was live streamed on our social media.

She was introduced as ‘The First Emirati Aziya’ – the word Aziya being coined by us as a previously non-existent, feminine form of the masculine ‘Azi’.

Following this, we created multiple immersive experiences of her poem in malls over the country – and even released a short film in cinemas across the nation.

The poem itself was released, verse by verse, on social media – each verse highlighting the achievements of different iconic Emirati women.

With the support of a small-budget PR campaign, we even invited local media channels to the live performance, which helped amplify the news story.

After the initial launch, Al Hanouf's Aziya performances were staged at literature festivals all over the country, and school events were organised for young girls to perform Aziya.

The campaign received phenomenal engagement on social media and Aziya poetry gave a new voice to Emirati women all over the country.

On UAE National Day, popular local Emirati TV presenter, Fatema Taha became the second Emirati woman to publicly perform Aziya.

Today, Aziya has become a movement encouraging a new generation of Emiratis to celebrate the achievements of Emirati women, with more and more performances being organised in schools across the country.

Over 415,000 women were engaged in total, resulting in a 43% increase in brand respect for Emirates NBD, and a 164% increase of sentiment in favour of supporting Emirati female artists.