How HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah’s Foundation Is Using Drama Therapy To Help Arab Women
“My work at Intisar Foundation shines a light on the power of a mother to change the course of the expected future for one’s family”
The idea of motherhood brings more questions to women today than it did to their grandmothers or great grandmothers. Will it take all their time? Will it slow their career progress? Will it prevent them from accomplishing their other goals? To this endless list of questions, HH Sheikha Intisar AlSabah, founder of Ebbarra, Intisars, Alnowair, Bareec, and Intisar Foundation, has only one answer, “No, motherhood will not distance you from any of your dreams. On the contrary, it will help make them all happen.”
The essence of motherhood – caring and nurturing – is the underlying motive of all HH Sheikha Intisar’s entrepreneurial, non-profit, and philanthropic endeavours. Her jewellery brands Intisars and Ebbarra equip women with daily reminders and tools for self-empowerment while her non-profits Alnowair and Bareec encourage positivity and high aspirations among people in Kuwait and beyond. In a nutshell, the Sheikha’s work contributes to instilling positive change in the Arab world; however, her charitable organisation – Intisar Foundation – has the most motherly vibe about it.
Officially registered as a humanitarian organisation with the Charity Commission for England and Wales on 8 March 2019, marking International Women’s Day, Intisar Foundation is a private-born initiative that provides psychological support programmes of drama therapy to Arab women affected by war and violence. These women often face impenetrable cultural, social, and language barriers that prevent them from getting any psychological care services.
The foundation utilises drama therapy since it has proved to be gentle, less stigmatising, effective and the most culturally competent psychological intervention for working with those impacted by brutality and upheaval. As a method, drama therapy not only circumvents mental health stigma but it succeeds in changing it over time. For instance, there is evidence that the foundation’s work has shifted deeply entrenched cultural narratives; participants have ended the practice of child marriages in their families, stood up to their abusers, or achieved better emotional growth and communication within their families.
HH Sheikha Intisar – who often attends these drama therapy sessions with the foundation’s beneficiaries herself – insists that the programmes are delivered in Arabic, by Arab drama therapists, and in cooperation with local NGOs in Lebanon and Jordan.
At the regional level, the Intisar Foundation shines a spotlight on the right of all women and girls to live free from fear, including through participation in the annual global 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign with UN Women. In this manner, the Kuwaiti trailblazer ensures that the organisation’s approach is fully aligned with real needs on the ground, evidently leading to more peaceful individuals, families, and communities.
The royal philanthropist is a firm believer in the fact that empowering Middle Eastern women whose lives have been surrounded by violence can transform them into the region’s most impactful peacemakers. She believes that enabling the psychological recovery and restoring the inner confidence of a mother leads to the whole family becoming more at peace. In healing mothers, Intisar Foundation is effecting a long-term, systemic change in the Arab world. This is the reason why HH Sheikha Intisar’s One Million Arab initiative – a 30-year-plan to alleviate war and violence trauma in one million Arab women – has been hailed as an innovative approach to the field of peace building worldwide.
“While my other endeavours serve as examples of allowing the feelings of motherhood to become a source of new projects and initiatives, all aimed at bettering a person or a community, my work at Intisar Foundation shines a light on the power of a mother to change the course of the expected future for one’s family – to turn it around and make it better, much better,” Her Highness says.
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s July-August 2022 issue.