Kuwaiti royal seeks to innovate home country

Sheikha Al-Zain Al-Sabah, the undersecretary of the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs of Kuwait, at her office in Kuwait City on April 20 / Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung

Undersecretary Al-Zain Al-Sabah says she is running youth ministry like a startup

By Kang Hyun-kyung

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait is a young country with more than two-thirds of its population under the age of 34. Compared to older members of the population, younger people are more educated, tech-savvy and vocal on social media.

Sheikha Al-Zain Al-Sabah, the undersecretary of the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs, considers young Kuwaitis an asset to the country. She says the talented, innovative young people can be agents of change for the oil-rich country, as they can create what she calls "third-sector jobs" and consequently help diversify the economy to prepare for when the country's oil resources are exhausted and lessen its dependence on oil exports.

"I see the ministry as a startup, so I run it very much like a startup," she said on April 20 at her office in Kuwait City.

Al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family of Kuwait, is one of the founding members of the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs. She and other likeminded people established the ministry three years ago and forged partnerships with the community to better serve its constituency — people under 34.

She calls the ministry an incubator that helps young people develop skills and find opportunities. The entrepreneur-turned-government official said "creative reconstruction" is necessary for the newly created organization to succeed.

Sulaiman A. Al-Onaizi, counselor at the Center for Research and Studies on Kuwait, looks at the documents at the center's library in Kuwait City on April 18. The Kuwaiti government established the institute to strengthen its sovereignty after the Iraqi invasion of the country. / Korea Times

"I'm here to disrupt," she said. "I'm not here to make people inside the government happy. I'm here to tell them that the reason the ministry is here is because there is a job to be done."

Her rare career path has differentiated her from other royals in the region. Before joining the ministry, she was an award-winning filmmaker, TV producer and chairwoman of a multimedia company established to create media jobs for talented, creative younger Kuwaitis.

Her "Journey to Mecca," a documentary she coproduced, was showcased at the National Museum of Natural History, a part of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. The film attempts to raise awareness of the peaceful nature of Islam through the 18-month journey of Islamic scholar Ibn Battuta from his home country of Morocco to Saudi Arabia for the Muslim pilgrimage of the Hajj.

"Amreeka," another documentary she coproduced, is about the lives of a Palestinian-American family in the West Bank and in suburban Chicago after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The film, which won an award and was featured at several international film festivals, earned her fame.

Al-Sabah ran her own production company in Los Angeles before she returned to Kuwait. She later founded multimedia company Eagle Vision Media Group KSCC, where she served as chairwoman and managing director between 2002 and 2013.

Her private sector experience trained her to be an innovative leader in the government.

"I have equipped myself to fully deliver exactly what I have done in the private sector," she said. "I bring the same mentality to the public sector in order to disrupt and reconstruct it according to what we feel is necessary as far as moving forward."

Al-Sabah said her private sector experience also taught her the importance of teamwork, which she realizes can make or break key initiatives.

"As a filmmaker and TV producer, I understand the power of a story," she said. "If you want to sell the story, you have to engage everybody involved around you and make them understand that they have parts to play in the overall story. So it has to be something that is equally shared among the community."

Her mother's uncle is Kuwaiti emir and incumbent ruler Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. However, she says being a royal isn't necessarily a perk.

"People assume that this background comes with privileges. But it doesn't. It comes with more obstacles than privileges," she said. "People judge you by your last name rather than your merit. That's not good, especially when you have invested heavily in yourself as an individual."

Gulf War impact

Asked if she has ever felt she herself is a victim of very high expectations because of her family background, she said no.

"Being a member of the ruling family doesn't necessarily mean that you are better than anyone else," she said. "There is no gap between the ruling family and the community at large. My best friends are not within the family. We intermarry. In Kuwait we don't see this gap."

She said that she is a leader who was made, not born, and that the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 was a turning point in her life that caused her to be strong and independent.

"Overnight, we lost our nation. We lost everything," she said. "In order to survive, we had to learn how to stand alone but stand united together with other Kuwaitis to save our country. The Iraqi invasion played a major part in forming me."

Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, years after Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi petroleum through slant drilling across the international border into Iraq's Rumaila oil field.

Some experts, however, speculated that the war was premeditated by then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to avoid his country's repayment of its $14 billion debt to Kuwait during the Iran-Iraq war that ended in 1988. Kuwait's overproduction of oil worsened Iraq's financial status, as the Iraq's oil revenues had gone down before the war. During the three-day war and the ensuing seven-month occupation of Kuwait, Iraqi forces killed approximately 4,200 Kuwaitis and captured 12,000 others.

Kuwait was freed in February 1991 following the U.S.-led coalition's successful military operation in the first Gulf War. But its seven-month occupation by Iraq had a long-lasting, far-reaching impact on the overall Kuwaiti society, including on women.

Al-Sabah claimed that women are treated equally in Kuwait and are not hindered by a glass ceiling, thanks to their roles during the war.

"During the invasion, we had many women protesters on the frontlines. They were the first to come out and speak against the Iraqis. We have very strong women figures in various areas, including business," Al-Sabah said.

Following liberation from Iraq, the Kuwaiti government established the Center for Research and Studies to preserve hundreds of thousands of historical documents, books and maps about the war, as well as about the history of the Gulf country. Among other things, its archives include old documents and maps showing that the name of Kuwait has been used for hundreds of years and the country used to have a strong shipbuilding industry before the discovery of its oil resources.

The establishment of the think tank was part of the Kuwaiti government's efforts to strengthen its sovereignty, in response to Iraq's previous claim that Kuwait is part of its territory.

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn