'My country was riding with me:' Emirati adventurer

The ninth Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SEF 2026) offered audiences a rare, unfiltered look into the inner worlds of three Arab women who have redefined what endurance, leadership, and courage look like beyond the summit.

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Speaking during the session "Discussion with firsts: Pioneering in sports and athletics", Manal Rostom, the first Egyptian woman to summit Mount Everest and complete the Six World Marathon Majors, Fatima Abdulrahman Al Awadhi, 18, the youngest Emirati and first Arab teenager to scale Antarctica's highest peak, and Fatima Alloghani, an Emirati adventure bike rider who has travelled more than 7,000 kilometres across 17 countries, shared deeply personal reflections on fear, faith, discipline, and the unseen emotional work behind historic achievements.

VULNERABILITY AS STRENGTH, NOT WEAKNESS: Responding to a question on vulnerability, Rostom recalled a moment she chose to share publicly while climbing Everest. "I posted a video of myself crying," she said. "Saying, 'This is hard. I don't think I can do it.' The love I received made me realize that vulnerability is the new strong. Killing my ego was my biggest lesson from the death zone."

While her climbs have made headlines, Rostom spoke candidly about the responsibility that followed visibility. "The story stops being about you," she said. "You become responsible to everyone who sees you as a role model. I didn't sign up to be a leader. I became what people needed."

TURNING GRIEF INTO PURPOSE: For Al Awadhi, mountaineering began during a school trip to Nepal, at a time when her father had been in a coma for four years. "In nature, I found peace," she said. "I sat by a campfire, opened my notes app, wrote down the Seven Summits, and decided I would do them."