Ingredients in UAE mostly come from India: UAE's first female chef Khulood

Agencies

March 2, 2019

UAE, Mar 2: Food ingredients, mostly spices, come from India, which makes the Emirati cuisine taste almost similar to the Indian cuisine, shared Khulood Atiq Saeed, the first female chef from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Attending an international food festival hosted by the Embassy of UAE in New Delhi in collaboration with multiple Embassies of other countries, including France, Tunisia, Czech Republic, Hungary and others, on Friday, Saeed told ANI, "We don't have any ingredients in our country. Most of the spices come from India. So you can see the Emirati food and Indian food is similar."

"Few differences are however noted in the taste because we use less chilli in our food. But today it was a combination of both cuisines. I made the Emirati stew and used the Indian 'Rumali Roti' as the bread to go with it," Saeed added.

The celebrity chef further went on stating that Indian food was one of her favourites in the list.

"I am excited to see more recipes and spices in the food festival. In my country, we have some Indian food but it is not the same here because you have a huge number of recipes. I have time here and so, I went to the kitchen and saw the chef preparing few of the Indian dishes," Saeed said.

When asked to elaborate on her journey of becoming the first female iconic chef from the UAE, Saeed remarked that her career started in 2006.

"Initially many people had commented that how are you going to work with your abaya along with so many men around you. But now those people are proud of me because today I not only cook but also write the Emirati cookbooks. I do lots of episodes on the local television channels and visit around the world to promote the Emirati food," Saeed noted.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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