Dubai – Living in an Arab country was not Amanda Magalhães’ dream when she left Brazil for the first time, in 2005, to spend her vacations at her sister Camila’s house in Dubai. But as soon as she arrived in the city she decided she would live there. “I was surprised with the safety, the organization. I found Dubai to be a joyful, lively city. I wanted to live here,” says the 29-year-old Brazilian.
She also identified with the local cultural, converted to Islam and married a Pakistani, with whom she had a daughter in 2012. Presently, apart from studying, she works for a Brazilian events company.
Upon deciding to move to Dubai, Magalhães began working as a flight attendant for Emirates Airline. She left São Bernardo do Campo, the city she was born in, in the Greater São Paulo area, and relocated to an apartment she shared with her sister, also a flight attendant, in the emirate.
She became curious about Islam while living in Dubai. Little by little, she bought books about the religion, distanced herself from her friends, and changed her wardrobe: low-cut dresses and skinny trousers went out of style for her.
In the beginning of Ramadan, in August 2007, she decided to convert to Islam. Ramadan is the month of the Islamic calendar when Muslims go on a fast. “I like Islam because it is a simple religion. You have a direct connection with God, you are very close to God,” she says. Prior to converting, she was a “non-practicing” Catholic, and claims her parents did not oppose her choice. “They wanted me to do whatever would make me feel good.”
The Brazilian wears the Islamic veil, but does not cover her entire body, nor does she give up working and having fun because of religion. “Staying home, to me, is not a guideline of Islam’s. It is a cultural thing. I try to be moderate. I do not want to just serve my husband,” she said.
In May 2007 she met her husband, the Pakistan-born Ahmed, aged 31, also a flight attendant, on a flight to Sydney, Australia. They married in 2011 and on the following year they had their first daughter, Maysa.
Shortly after her daughter’s birth, Magalhães put aside the planes and airports in order to tend to the baby and study. “I would arrive at a given city and instead of resting after the flight, I would study for tests. Then I had to go home and care for my child. I kept working for Emirates, but in a different area, developing a project at the call centre, but then I quit.” Had it not been for the accumulation of duties, she would still be flying with the Dubai-based airline.
Magalhães works for a company that organizes events in Dubai and assists Brazilians in moving to the emirate. “I help them get their documentation and settle in the city,” she says. Last week, she did client prospecting for companies at the Brazilian stand in Dubai’s Gulfood fair. She is also in her sophomore year in an online Education course from a Brazilian college. Twice a year she travels to Brazil to sit tests. It is enough not to miss the country.
“Anything I can do in São Paulo I can do in Dubai. I like it here and I want to stay here.” Only the family is moving late this year. Ahmed has business in the emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah, one of the seven which comprise the United Arab Emirates, like Dubai. “I am going to miss Dubai, because all of the people I know are here. But Ahmed has had business there for two years now, and he is thriving. Ras Al-Khaimah is a great, beautiful place,” she says.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
