A Letter From Our Editor | Harper’s Bazaar Saudi Winter 2023
Bazaar Arabia’s Group Editor in Chief Olivia Phillips shares how cover star Nora Aljabr, motivates us with her confidence, charisma and determination, inspiring us to gallop towards a brighter 2024
“I never developed fear from the number of times I fell off. I just kept on riding, riding, riding.” So Harper’s Bazaar Saudi cover star Nora Aljabr tells us, perhaps inadvertently sharing the kind of wisdom we could all do with being reminded of from time to time. Not least when heading into a brand-new year.
Nora’s implication is that talent is nothing without tenacity, and to be rewarded often requires a serious amount of resilience in the run-up to it. Basically, nothing worth having comes easy. Case in point: Nora’s much-extolled status as the first certified mounted archery trainer in the Kingdom. She assures us the accomplishment came with its own unique set of challenges – some attached to gender, some to geography – but mostly because turning yourself into a living legend is no mean feat. Just one look at both the images and video from our cover shoot, shot on location in Nora’s training ranch in Khobar, reveals something of a chimerical character; so astounding, so commanding and so powerful that she can’t possibly be real – can she?
The most impressive part of all of this, however, isn’t the windwhipping, backwards-riding, bow-and-arrow-shooting part. It’s the revivalist part. Nora’s dedication to preserving Arab history and identity is underscored with both honour and pride. There’s not a lot that’s more beautiful than that.
Photographer: Buthaynah Alharthi. Styling: Laura Jane Brown. Editor in Chief: Olivia Phillips. Make-Up: Kasia Domanska. All Beauty: Sephora Middle East. Senior Producer: Steff Hawker. Styling Assistant: Merhan Raafat.
From Harper’s Bazaar Saudi’s Winter 2023 issue
