Hajar Ali

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Hajar Ali (born 1978 or 1979) [1] is a Singaporean entrepreneur, founder of Urbane Nomads and the website Travel Like a Humanitarian. She was the first recorded woman to cross the Rub' al Khali, the "Empty Quarter" of the Arabian Peninsula.

Ali has a master's degree in strategic studies from the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, now the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies; her thesis "[applied] James C Scott’s model of peasant resistance to the daily transgressions of Iranian youths against the ruling mullahs". [2] [3] [4] She previously worked as a real estate agent. [5]

Ali founded Urbane Nomads, a bespoke luxury travel agency, in 2008 after conceiving the idea while traveling in Patagonia. [6] A lover of horses, she likes to include riding in the company's trips. [1] [3] She later launched Travel Like a Humanitarian, a website on which NGOs can advertise travel offerings. [6]

In March 2012, she made the first known crossing of the Rub' al Khali by a woman. [3] [7] [8] [9] She intends to make a future expedition to the pole of inaccessibility in Antarctica. [4] [9]

In 2011 Ali was included by Singapore Women's Weekly in its annual "Great Women of Our Time". [1] [8]

She serves as the editor of Mensa Singapore's newsletter [10] and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She considers Singapore her home, [5] [11] but as of November 2015 lives in Istanbul. [2] She has a Bengal cat named Loki. [5] Ali is a practicing Muslim but does not wear the hijab. [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Great Women of Our Time: Finance & Commerce: Hajar Ali (32) Founder of Urbane Nomads" Archived 2017-02-11 at the Wayback Machine , Singapore Women's Weekly, 2011, at Urbane Nomads (pdf).
  2. 1 2 3 Hajar Ali, "Travelling in the Age of Terrorism : From the perspective of a Muslim woman and tourism professional", Medium , November 24, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Correne Coetzer, "Hajar Ali: Woman across Arabian Desert", Trek news, ExplorersWeb, April 12, 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Why It's Good to Be Hajar Ali, World Traveler", Seeker, July 23, 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 Tay Suan Chiang, "Quarters of an urban nomad" Archived 2017-02-12 at the Wayback Machine , The Business Times , October 25, 2014, at Singapore Property News.
  6. 1 2 Eren Cervantes-Altamirano, "The luxury of travelling to remote places", Aquila Style, October 21, 2014.
  7. ↑ Janice Ponce de Leon, "Ali stakes claim as first woman to cross Empty Quarter", Gulf News , April 7, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Aristotle Nandy, "Singaporean Becomes First Woman to Cross the World's Largest Sand Desert", Waves Lifestyle Issue 14, November/December 2012, pp. 30–33.
  9. 1 2 Cassie Lim, "In A Niche Of My Own – Hajar Ali" Archived 2016-09-24 at the Wayback Machine , Be Movement 1, October 2012.
  10. ↑ Management Committee, Mensa Singapore, retrieved September 21, 2016.
  11. ↑ "I Heart My City: Hajar’s Singapore", Beyond the Guidebook, National Geographic , October 28, 2015.
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