Jamila Al Zaabi, who is renowned in the UAE as the “Mother of the Ambulance”, has provided insights into a unique 36-year career in public service, which broke all the professional boundaries for women in the UAE.
The honourable title was given to her by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai, and it symbolises three decades of relentless humanitarian service. The professional journey of Al Zaabi involves 21 years dedicated exclusively to emergency medical services as well as paramedic fieldwork, followed by 15 years managing administrative and humanitarian issues in a women’s prison.
Long before formal municipal frameworks systematically integrated female personnel into frontline emergency medical teams, she proactively volunteered her services, taking on gruelling shift duties and stepping directly into chaotic high-intensity operations, including the massive industrial disaster during the 2008 Al Quoz fire.
Reflecting on the motivations behind her decades of service, Al Zaabi highlighted that her career path was forged by a childhood ambition to leave a profound, lasting impact on individual lives during their most vulnerable moments. Her decades in emergency services required navigating severe physical demands, immense psychological pressure, and complex logistics, frequently responding to catastrophic traffic accidents, residential fires, and acute medical emergencies with unshakeable professional composure. Beyond basic lifesaving protocols, she emphasised the importance of delivering emotional comfort to victims and grieving families, treating every patient with deep maternal care and dignity.
Transitioning later in her career into correctional facility management, Al Zaabi extended her public service ethos by overseeing the welfare and rehabilitation of inmates. Applying a compassionate, human-centred leadership philosophy, she focused on reform, personal development, and humane care, demonstrating that the core principles of emergency medical stewardship extend seamlessly into institutional rehabilitation.
Her enduring legacy stands as a monumental landmark in the evolution of gender inclusion across the United Arab Emirates. By pioneering pathways in high-stress, historically male-dominated fields, Al Zaabi has established an inspirational benchmark for future generations of Emirati women entering emergency medicine, public administration, and specialised healthcare services.
