Hajar Ali
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[update] 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[edit]
- ^ a b c "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).
- ^ a b c Hajar Ali, "Travelling in the Age of Terrorism : From the perspective of a Muslim woman and tourism professional", Medium, November 24, 2015.
- ^ a b c Correne Coetzer, "Hajar Ali: Woman across Arabian Desert", Trek news, ExplorersWeb, April 12, 2012.
- ^ a b "Why It's Good to Be Hajar Ali, World Traveler", Seeker, July 23, 2012.
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ a b Eren Cervantes-Altamirano, "The luxury of travelling to remote places", Aquila Style, October 21, 2014.
- ^ Janice Ponce de Leon, "Ali stakes claim as first woman to cross Empty Quarter", Gulf News, April 7, 2012.
- ^ a b Aristotle Nandy, "Singaporean Becomes First Woman to Cross the World's Largest Sand Desert", Waves Lifestyle Issue 14, November/December 2012, pp. 30–33.
- ^ a b Cassie Lim, "In A Niche Of My Own – Hajar Ali", Be Movement 1, October 2012.
- ^ Management Committee, Mensa Singapore, retrieved September 21, 2016.
- ^ "I Heart My City: Hajar’s Singapore", Beyond the Guidebook, National Geographic, October 28, 2015.