Meet the UAE’s first female crane operator

January 29, 2015

Dubai, Jan 29: Aisha Al Marzouqi is the UAE’s first woman to work as a crane operator at Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi.

Aisha, a 28 year-old Emirati, operates one of the port’s super-post-Panamax cranes weighing 1,932 tonnes with a height of 126.5 metres. Her main job is to unload container vessels using the crane which has a lifting capacity of 90 tonnes.

Aisha is currently in the final phase of her training programme and will be working independently on site upon completion of training. Unlike other occupations, Aisha’s workplace does not consist of a desk and computer, but rather a glass cabin with the necessary controls of the crane overlooking the vessels beneath her feet.

“As part of my job, there are challenges like getting on the crane in the first place,” she said. “However I love the job. It requires a lot of attention and focus because you are operating something that is big in size and carries heavy containers.”

She explained that she got the job through a recruitment event held for UAE nationals, when she heard Mohammad Al Shamsi speak about the shortage of Emirati employees in the workforce.

Aisha was looking forward to being the first Emirati woman to occupy this position, setting an example in her society.

“I watched a documentary about a female pilot in the UAE Air Force who truly inspired me. Before I started my training at Khalifa Port container terminal, I was given a tour of the port facilities and the ship-to-shore quay cranes really fascinated me. I felt this was my calling and I decided to become a crane operator,” she said.

Working five days a week, her shifts consist of four hours from 8am to 4pm. Aisha followed her ambitions with family and friends constantly commending her decision.

“They all encouraged me and blessed my decision and now I am named the first Emirati woman to become a crane operator,” she said.

Abu Dhabi Terminal has employment and training initiatives to boost its Emiratisation strategy.

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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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