Where’s nature?: Women’s narratives of public and private landscapes in the UAE

Abstract

The study of Emirati women’s engagement with urban landscapes has started to emerge over the last two decades, mostly within ethnographic and historic accounts that emphasise ‘culture’, and are centred on how women navigate cultural values of female propriety within a context that is rapidly becoming urbanized and globalized. Based on semi-structured interviews with Emirati women that examine perceptions of ‘nature’ in a highly urbanized context, this research explores where and how ‘nature’ is encountered and shaped. Through a focus on landscape, and an intersectional understanding of the different socio-cultural frameworks through which landscape is constructed and experienced, this research highlights the ways in which the concept of, and encounters with ‘nature’ are culturally constructed and framed, and expressed through narratives of sensory embodiments within public and private landscapes. The typologies that emerged from the interviews include private home gardens, urban public parks, and recreational spaces in the desert. The findings illustrate that socially constructed notions of ‘nature’ and of ‘public and private’ spheres are context specific and are constantly changing. This research ties into discussions on the public/private dichotomy and the discourse on intersectionality within ecofeminism that addresses issues of difference. Developing an intersectional understating of the relationship between women and their environment is crucial to the development of inclusive, equitable, and sustainable landscapes.

Keywords:

• Gender
• landscape
• UAE
• nature
• public and private
• ecofeminism

1. Introduction

The study of landscape as it relates to gender started to emerge since the 1980s, predominantly within research that examined the North American and European context and focused on women’s perceptions of the land and the impact of landscape development on their lived experiences (Kolodny 1984; Norwood 1988; Schlissel, Ruíz, and Monk 1988; Monk 1992; Westling 1996; Carubia, Dowler, and Szczygiel 2005). Similar contemporary studies on the Global South have focused on socio-spatial inequalities (Biswas 2022; Chant 2013) and culturally specific gendered meanings associated with the land (Gururani 2002). However, to date, there are very few landscape studies that incorporate women’s perceptions and experiences of landscape in highly urbanized contexts such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While there have been ethnographic studies of gender and place in the Arab Gulf Region at large, and the UAE in particular (Kanna, Le Renard, and Vora 2020; Le Renard 2020, 2021; Reichenbach 2015), studies on landscape development in relation to gender are still limited. Within the few ethnographic and historic accounts of Emirati women’s engagement with the urban landscape, the studies centre on how the women navigate persistent cultural values of female propriety in a context that is rapidly becoming urbanized and globalized (Bristol-Rhys 2010, 2018; Reichenbach 2015; Heard-Bey 2021). Although these studies have drawn on some of the everyday realities and women’s spatial practices, they have primarily focused on hypermodern urban settings. Missing from these narratives is how gender norms affect both the use and development of various landscapes perceived as ‘nature’ within and beyond hypermodern settings. This research examines Emirati women’s perceptions of ‘nature’ within the highly urbanized context of the UAE; exploring where and how ‘nature’ is encountered and shaped within this context. By employing ecofeminist intersectionality—a framework that ‘attempts to attend to the variety of ways in which women live and the range of circumstances, which influence their often vastly different experiences’ (Kings 2017, 64), the research aims to understand how women’s spatial experiences are influenced by the intersection of social categories such as gender, age, marital status, motherhood, and nationality, and notions of ‘insiders’ or ‘outsiders’ in relation to the land. Developing an intersectional understanding between women and their environment, and how landscapes are shaped, is crucial to the development of inclusive, equitable and sustainable landscapes.

Since the federation of the UAE in 1971, the transformation of large areas of the desert into vegetated landscapes through the development of parks and nature reserves, has been undertaken as a form of nation building and a part of the postcolonial national modernization project (Ouis 2002) while simultaneously constructing a global image through ‘green branding’ to attract tourists and investors (Bolleter 2019; Alzeer and Rosmer 2023). In 2021, Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan was launched as a ‘people-centric’ plan aimed at creating inclusive environments, with one of the key target outcomes to have 60% of the emirate’s land to compromise of nature reserves and rural natural areas, and to double the size of green and recreational areas (Dubai Municipality, n.d.). Given these strategic targets, developing an understanding of women’s experiences and needs as key components of such future projects is crucial to inform the planning and design of inclusive landscapes in the UAE.

Drawing from architecture, urban design and landscape studies, the aim of this research is to link the development and management of landscapes, to the lived experiences of Emirati women. Within this framework, the research utilized landscape as a theoretical category to analyze Emirati women’s perceptions and experiences across multiple spatial scales within both private and public spheres. The meaning of the word landscape goes beyond simply the view of a scenery—it is the interaction of people and place, and relates to ‘particularly the spaces to which the group belongs and from which its members derive some part of their shared identity’ (Groth and Bressi 1997, 1). In this sense, landscape is a visual ideology and a collective social construction that expresses personal and social identities, values and fears (Cosgrove 1985; Lewis 1979). More recent literature has focused on sensory experiences of landscapes beyond the focus on ‘vision’, and how our senses profoundly shape our experiences within cities (Law 2014; Degen 2014). The focus of this study is primarily on landscapes that are either managed or built as places for encountering ‘nature’ or landscapes where ‘nature’ is generally not ‘seen’ but experienced through the senses within urban and non-urban environments across both public and private spheres. Such landscapes, which emerged from the interviews, include private home gardens, urban public parks, and recreational spaces built within desert reserves.

This research is based on 15 semi-structured interviews that were conducted over two separate research phases between December 2022 and June 2023 with young adult and middle-aged Emirati women living across different emirates. Through these interviews and the resultant findings, this research expands on understandings of public and private spheres within the UAE, provides insights into how the research participants respond to place and landscape, and contributes to gender and landscape discourse on how gender norms affect the ways in which landscapes are shaped (Carubia, Dowler, and Szczygiel 2005). The research ties into the intersectional ecofeminist discourse on understanding the inter-connecting factors that influence women’s spatial experiences and relationship with their environment (Gaard 2011; Kings 2017).

2. Literature review

From the 1980s through to the 1990s, a new politicized dialogue emerged within geography that developed a more critical approach to the understanding of landscape beyond the view of landscape as scenery, to redefine it as a system of power relations within society (Cosgrove 1984, 1985; Daniels and Cosgrove 1988; Duncan and Price 1990; Schein 1997). Cosgrove (1985, 46–47) argues that landscape as a ‘way of seeing’ is a visual ideology related to the exercise of power over space that is connected to epistemic and technical ways of seeing an identified social group and their relationship with the land and other human groups. Feminist critical interpretations of landscape examine how landscapes encode the objectification of women and land (Rose 1993), how gender metaphors extend to landscape (Kolodny 1984; Westling 1996), and the power relations that produce and perpetuate socially constructed gender stereotypes (Carubia, Dowler, and Szczygiel 2005). In examining the power of ‘visuality’ within landscape and the ways in which it constitutes geographic knowledge, Rose (1993) argues that the gaze in relation to landscape is a gendered act of power that constructs the landscape as feminine. Recent approaches in human geography have challenged the dominance of ‘vision’ in understanding urban spaces through examining embodied senses of place, which can provide insights into everyday politics and human agency (Degen 2014; Law 2014). Law (2014, 718) argues that ‘seeing’ the city from above reveals more about the state power—visions of ‘remarkable’ and ‘elite landscapes’—than about people’s everyday experiences.

In a similar vein to theories that reject essential femininity in relation to landscape so as to subvert hegemonic ways of seeing, some works by ecofeminist scholars focused on challenging the links between the gendered culture-nature dualism (Fitzsimmons 1989; Gaard and Gruen 1993; Salleh 1997). Gaard and Gruen (1993) argue that the patriarchal culture describes the world in terms of dualities—as culture/nature, civilized/wild, man/woman, human/non-human, thus creating a hierarchy of values. Salleh (1997), in critiquing aspects of feminist practice, argues that Global North feminists have historically ignored the experiences of indigenous people and women of colour, and advocates for an approach that sets aside the Eurocentric lens in favour of a global one. Recent work on ecofeminism adopts an intersectional approach and has emerged as a corrective to the ‘essentialism of the unitary category “woman”’ (Gaard 2011, 35). Agarwal (1992, 125) argues for directing attention to the material sources of dominance, such as economic and political powers, addressing ‘women’s lived material relationship with nature’, and differentiating between women of different ecological zones. As Kings (2017) argues, applying intersectionality to ecofeminism can further our understanding that women’s relationship with their environment is dependent on a combination of factors without reducing an experience to a singular category.

To situate postcolonial landscapes within the literature on gendered ways of seeing, it is crucial to understand the ways in which knowledge about both ‘culture’ and the ‘natural environment’ of that culture are produced. Within disciplines, such as anthropology and geography, ‘culture’ is often employed as a tool to create an uneven and hierarchical relationship by representing the people whose culture is under investigation as ‘the other’ (Abu-Lughod 2008). Similarly, as Salleh (1997, 177–178) argues, Eurocentric notions of the wild reiterate the logic of the politics of terra nullius (meaning empty land or nobody’s land), and the connotation of the wilderness as ‘other’, through capitalist patriarchal projects of remaking nature that romanticize indigenous identity.

Urban discourse research that was published in the period following the federation of the UAE by the union of the seven emirates in 1971 and in the last decade of the twentieth century primarily centers on the transformational nation building narrative of rapid urban and social change from a barren desert into a modern globalized society within a few decades. However, some scholarly works provide a counter-narrative to the stereotypical view of cities in the Gulf as hypermodern and unauthentic. Within his work, Elsheshtawy (2019a, 2019b, 2009) documents ‘landscapes of transience’ that depict how migrant workers in Dubai appropriate green areas and lawns as social spaces. The yearning to establish permanence in a rapidly changing environment manifests informally through creating gardens around the city defying rules and regulations as a way for locals and residents to personalize their habitat and strengthen their connection to the land (Elsheshtawy 2019b). Few works within the landscape discourse explore the cultural and social meanings of landscape in the Gulf region (Doherty 2014, 2017) and approaches to landscape urbanism in Dubai (Doherty 2008; Bolleter 2015). Other works have highlighted the role of landscape development approaches in constructing a distinctive ‘Emirati form of modern nature’ (Ouis 2002) and a global image through ‘green branding’ strategies (Bolleter 2019; Alzeer and Rosmer 2023).

Over the past two decades, studies that focus on Emirati women’s engagement with the urban landscape have started to emerge within historic and ethnographic accounts, however, these studies focus predominantly on the tension between cultural values and modern day to day lives of women. Heard-Bey (2021) traces the transformation of Emirati women’s ways of life, the dimensions of their spatial domains before and after the oil periods, and the persistence of religion and traditional customs in daily life. Heard-Bey’s argues that aspects of the traditional way of life are transported into everyday modern life outside the domestic space of the family home, and that for older women, there exists a nostalgia for traditional ways of life. Bristol-Rhys (2010) analyzes how three different generations of Emirati women have adapted to the rapid urbanization within the space of four decades, their perception of the sudden changes in their lives, and the socio-spatial boundaries that affect their presence within the public realm. Reichenbach (2015, 162) argues that the gendered character of space for young Emirati women depends on temporal shifts in the occupation of space and the nationality of the occupants, dividing the city into ‘Emirati’ and ‘non-Emirati places’—all of which influence the urban trajectories of women in the public sphere. Within places that are enclaves of comfort and complacency for Western expatriates (Kanna 2011) where the ‘Emirati Gazes’ are absent, young women feel less monitored and judged (Reichenbach 2015, 162). AlMutawa (2022, 82) argues that ‘going beyond common categorizations allows us better insight into Emirati women’s complex relationships to the city.’ Her study demonstrates that Emirati women feel both a sense of belonging and exclusion in Western forms of cosmopolitanism. Another study by Haddad (2021, 231–232) mentions that going to the desert, particularly when visiting ‘Al-Izba’—a fenced land in the desert that is privately rented from the municipality for a minimal fee—offers a sense of comfort and privacy particularly for women.

Whilst studies that examine Emirati women’s spatial experiences, forms of belonging, and identity are starting to emerge, missing from the literature is research that applies feminist interpretations of the landscape as well as examining socio-cultural constructs of ‘nature’ in the context of the UAE that integrates the perceptions of Emirati women.

3. Methodology

The research included 15 semi-structured interviews with female Emirati participants whose permanent domicile is in the UAE. The interviews were conducted both off site and on site in Dubai over two separate phases between December 2022 and June 2023. The research questions were formulated to examine which recreational landscapes women value most when seeking to encounter ‘nature’; their favorite and least favorite conditions and features of the landscape in which they spend time; and the factors that affect their experiences within and encounters with landscape. The interviews were conducted in either English or Arabic, depending on respondents’ preference, and then manually transcribed and translated by the principal researcher.

Research participants were initially recruited by utilizing the primary researcher’s positionality as an emic researcher. Further participants were then recruited using a ‘snowball’ approach, with participants asked if they could recommend other Emirati women who would be willing to share their experiences of places they visit to connect with nature. Informants often noted that Emiratis rarely visit parks or that outdoor recreational facilities are limited. In setting out the specific landscape typologies examined, the types of landscapes were left open for participants to choose, with participants told that the ‘landscapes’ could be any places that the participants choose, such as parks, the desert, or any green spaces. This less prescriptive approach was adopted so as to imbed active ‘listening’ within the research process, and enable the participants to identify the recreational landscape typologies that are valuable to them, and to better understand their perceptions of landscapes and the factors that influence their choices. This approach was part of a broader adoption within the project of feminist research practices that shift away from the processes of ‘viewing and gazing’, that early interpretations of landscape within geography has been linked, to processes that enable ‘deep listening’ and allow the women to ‘guide the gaze’ (Sui 2000; Dando 2007). This approach is based on feminist theory, arguing that knowledge is socially situated (Harding 1991, 2009). Through the development of research practices and modes of knowledge production that place high value on women’s activities, needs, and desires (Harding 2009), the aim was to develop research processes that would be able to identify patterns that are not seen by ‘insiders’ and challenge forms of situated knowledge that are based on ‘the view from above, from nowhere, from simplicity’ (Haraway 1988, 195). Enabling research participants to be able to self-select how landscape was defined, and what constituted spatial practices and experiences within recreational areas and landscapes was an essential part of this process.

The selection of the two initial case study sites was based on their historical significance making them frequently visited. Figure 1 shows the location map of the sites in Dubai; 1) Al Khazan Park, 2) recreational areas at Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve which was opened to the public in 2018 as an ecological protection project for conservation and recreation. Most of the visitors were families, groups of women, and mothers with their children. Interviewing women at both sites presented some challenges, especially at the desert conservation reserve. Despite the primary researcher’s position as an Emirati woman, social conventions made approaching strangers slightly difficult, and many of the women approached kept responses brief. This was particularly so at the desert conservation reserve, where approaching visitors felt intrusive as they sought privacy by parking their cars in a way that created a sense of enclosure. At these sites, interviews were conducted with four Emirati participants. Table 1 shows the demographic data of the participants.

Figure 1. Map of the UAE with a detailed view of Dubai and the initial sites where the fieldwork was conducted. Base map source: Google Maps. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2024.

Table 1. Demographic data of the research participants.

Phase 1: On-site interviews. Locations: Al Khazan Park and Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve, Dubai
Label	Age range	Marital status	Nationality	Current house location	Residence type
P-01	Young adult	Married - has children	Emirati	Sharjah	House
P-02	Middle-aged	Married - has children	Emirati	Dubai	House
P-03	Middle-aged	Married - has children	Emirati	Dubai	House
P-04	Middle-aged	Married - has children	Emirati	Dubai	House
Phase 2: In-depth Interviews
Label	Age range	Marital status	Nationality	Current house location	Residence type	Occupation status
P-5	27	Single	Emirati	Dubai	House	Employed
P-6	31	Single	Emirati	Dubai	House	Employed
P-7	32	Single	Emirati	Sharjah	House	Employed
P-8	28	Single	Emirati	Dubai	House	Employed
P-9	37	Married	Emirati	Dubai	House	Employed
P-10	50	Married - has children	Emirati	Abu Dhabi	House	Employed
P-11	36	Married - has children	Emirati	Dubai	House	Employed
P-12	59	Married - has children	Emirati	Dubai	House	Not Employed
P-13	33	Single	Emirati	Abu Dhabi	House	Employed
P-14	36	Married - has children	Emirati	Sharjah	House	Employed
P-15	34	Single	Emirati	Dubai/Sharjah	House	Not Employed

To overcome this challenge, a second phase of research interviews was conducted with participants who were recruited by mutual colleagues, distant relatives, or friends who could facilitate an introduction between the researcher and participants. A flexible approach of relying on the participants to identify the landscape typologies that they value was maintained. Prior to the interviews, the researcher shared a description of the research, its objectives, and the interview questions with prospective participants. This more culturally sensitive process of recruiting participants through social networks and introductions enabled more in-depth interviews with the participants. This phase resulted in 11 in-depth interviews that were conducted with young adult and middle-aged Emirati women. An intersectional ecofeminist approach (Kings 2017) guided the design of the interview process. The questions were structured across three pivotal life stages—childhood, adolescence, and adulthood—to understand the factors influencing the participants’ spatial experiences across those life stages and identify places where they feel included or excluded. This approach facilitated the collection of narratives illustrating how the intersection of different aspects of the participants’ identities—such as gender, age, marital status, nationality, and motherhood resulted in variable experiences, allowing for a cross-analysis of these factors. At the end of the interviews, the participants were asked to share photos that describe a favorite experience being within nature (Figures 2 and 3).

Figure 2. A mature sapodilla tree grown from a sapling in a home garden. Photo by research participant.

Figure 3. A trip to the desert. Photo by research participant.

3.1. Limitations of the research

Given that this research is based on a limited sample, it does not aim to generalize the findings or present a comprehensive insight into Emirati women’s spatial experiences and perceptions of landscapes. It aims to present an alternative way, theoretically and methodically, of conducting research on gender and landscape that is context-specific while acknowledging that perceptions of landscapes are not fixed and constantly changing even within the same context. This research has only examined women’s perceptions of landscape, not men’s. The study of Emirati women’s spatial experiences is already marked by considerable diversity, which can be attributed to changing local notions of female propriety as well as individual experiences and subjectivities (e.g. a difference in the preference for gender-segregated spaces such as women-only parks). Therefore, the research scope was narrowed to enable an in-depth intersectional analysis.

4. Findings and analysis

4.1. Women’s perceptions and use of private and public landscapes

4.1.1. Private gardens

Within the UAE, hūwī is a traditional large outdoor open space within houses typically with a section dedicated for gardening. In all of the 11 in-depth interviews, hūwī emerged as a key outdoor leisure and social space typology—both during their early childhood and as a social recreational space that has continued to be important in today’s context. It is typically reserved for family members and used as a private social space to host distant relatives and friends. The UAE government provides housing and land benefits for citizens through granting ownership of public housing, land allocations or housing loans. As such, it is common for Emiratis to live in houses instead of apartment buildings and have their own private gardens. Houses are typically fenced by a high wall to provide privacy and having a hūwī is regarded as a primary design element. As one young adult participant described; ‘Our hūwī was and still is important. Even when we grew up, my dad always said anyone who builds a house should have a hūwī.’ In talking about the importance of having hūwī, two young adult participants described the landscaping and physical features of hūwī that they regarded as important, as well as their leisure time with their family and how the private home garden provided a sense of freedom:

My life was so much at home, and in the garden at home we had a pool, it created so many landscapes for imaginary play and we had a lot of freedom (P_15).

I like to have in hūwī a place for gardening. We had animals so we had a section for birds, and we had a corner, my grandmother in the afternoon would make a seating area and bring the tea, coffee, and fruits so we would all sit there. The afternoon Fowala (a light meal of fresh fruits and desserts) has to be there in the hūwī (P_13).

When asked to describe leisure activities that provide a feeling of being within ‘nature’, the hūwī emerged again as a space where the participants perceived that they were able to engage with nature. One young adult participant explained that she felt more connected to nature after moving from living in an apartment building into their own house with a hūwī that included a private garden, swimming pool and a place to keep domestic animals. Feeling ‘the splash of water’ and being outdoors within a private domestic space exemplified her idea of being within nature:

We lived in a flat in Al Khalidiyah, and it was opposite the corniche … If you want me to describe the area around us, there wasn’t much of a recreational area meaning parks, but streets, between cars we used to play hide and seek most of the time … it was completely different when we moved to Al Ain. We lived in our own villa and we had a huge or massive area like the backyard or hwsh (hūwī). We had goats and chickens, we would chase all the time. So we were more connected to nature than in Abu Dhabi … we would go out and run and play … We also had a swimming pool. So you would feel the splash of water in the summer (P_09).

Hūwī was, and still is, a traditional domestic space that people appropriate to fit their ideas of nature. A young married adult participant reflected on her childhood memories during the 1980s and being within nature by describing playing in the hūwī on the rare occasions of rain, and having a particular type of sand in her play space:

In our hūwī, there was a place that my grandma created for us, and it had sand … she used to say that she wants to get Al Ain sand for the kids because Al Ain sand is soft (P_11).

Six participants out of 11 described how the presence of animals was an important part of their own home ecologies during their childhood. Particularly for middle-aged women participants, the presence of animals continues to be important in today’s context, while for young adults it seemed to be less relevant:

I like animals, we have our own farm. Even in my house I still have my animals … I have sheep, chickens, gazelles. In the winter, I grow produce and I make chami and distribute them to my distant relatives …Since I got married until now, I’m the same, I love livestock (P_12).

4.1.2. Open spaces and wild vegetation in the neighborhood

In the second part of the interviews, participants were asked to describe outdoor social and leisure spaces that were important to them during their childhood beyond the private domestic space of the hūwī. Seven participants out of 11, two of which were middle aged women, explained that their familiar circle of family and neighborhood friends were all within walking distance. Family togetherness and a knowledge of the neighborhood was seen as created a sense of safety, especially during the years from 1970s to 1990s. For the middle-aged interview participants, the neighborhood streets, and empty lots where places that ‘boys and girls played together’ and families did not fear letting their kids play outside the house. Tightly knit social relations were reflected in the ways neighbors collectively appropriated open spaces within the neighborhood into social spaces. Three participants, two of which were middle-aged women and a one young adult, explained that open spaces in the neighborhood, called Baraha or sāḥa in Arabic, where date palms and prosopis trees sparsely grew, served as spaces where neighbours and mothers met, and kids played. While the Baraha was not formally planned as a public space or a park by the government, it was perceived as a public park like space as described by the participants:

We used to call it a park, but it wasn’t a park it was an empty lot next to the mosque. We used to gather there with all the kids in the neighbourhood. We were boys and girls. This doesn’t happen now … There was serenity and purity, without fear … There were about five or six palms so in the late afternoon the mothers would take their coffee and sit there (P_10).

I was born in 1986, during those years the neighbourhood was considered sort of safe. In front of our house there was a big sāḥa, it had swings and slides, it wasn’t a park. The neighbours put them there for the children (P_11).

According to participants, today, the neighbourhood is no longer the same familiar social circle that it once was. One middle-aged participant described with nostalgia how even after moving to another Emirate, she would still visit her old neighbourhood where she grew up:

Until now it is stuck in my memory … I went to my old neighbourhood, and I wandered around. Although the landmarks are different now, but some things are still there … being out in the neighbourhood doesn’t mean anything anymore … I tried to build this connection maybe because I had a childhood that was connected to neighbours. But unfortunately, I couldn’t build a connection with my new neighbours (P_10).

Today within the UAE, it is not unusual for families to live far from each other or often in other Emirates. As a result, neighbours do not have the same strong social relations that existed in the 70s-90s, and the feeling of togetherness has diminished. The Baraha or sāḥas which was originally appropriated to encourage interactions between families and neighbours no longer exists.

4.1.3. Urban public parks

Beyond the scale of the neighborhood, urban public parks started to open across different Emirates during the 1970s and 1980s. Local municipalities had policies to design parks in residential neighborhoods. During the interviews, middle-aged participants described how growing up visiting newly opened parks outside their own neighborhood and especially in other emirates during their youth felt more like traveling for traditional families as traveling abroad was not common for everyone:

One of the things that I experienced when I was a child and that brings me happiness is Al Hili Park in Al Ain … it was one of the first parks in the UAE. Our father used to take us out because it felt like we left our Emirate. You know now modern families have replaced this with traveling … So previously for traditional families … traveling was to other emirates. It wasn’t to Europe or to other countries … It was considered traveling and it was hard (P_10).

Six young adult participants mentioned that during their childhood, they used to go to their neighborhood parks occasionally with their parents to cycle and rollerblade. One participant mentioned that playgrounds in parks were important only when they lived in an apartment, and they stopped going as soon as they moved to a new house where they had their own garden and outdoor play space.

In the past, parks were perceived as touristic destinations that families travelled to from different emirates. Today, particularly for young adult Emirati women, the presence of a restaurant, a coffee shop or a walking path are amenities that make it more desirable to visit parks. During the field observation and the interviews that were conducted with female visitors to Al Khazan Park, all the interviewees mentioned that they particularly like this park because of the coffee shop. Some of them also mentioned that they only knew about it after a well-known restaurant was temporarily opened there. Similarly, all the mothers that were interviewed in Al Khazan park mentioned that the presence of a coffee shop where mothers can sit with their friends while the kids are playing was an important factor that made them visit this park regularly.

However, one middle-aged participant explained that she does use parks but not as much as she used to because ‘parks are now different than before … before, everyone was the same’ (P_12). According to the respondent, parks are much more crowded now than they once were, and utilized by a range of people from different nationalities - a demographic shift that had led the respondent to replace visiting parks with going to their own private farms. A young adult participant mentioned that she commonly heard that parks are for expatriates. Similarly, a middle-aged participant shared that for her daughters ‘parks are for foreigners who come here not for us.’ She followed by explaining that this cultural perception stems from a period when there were expectations of appropriateness related to where women can go out and sit in public recreational areas. Today, ‘the culture of appropriateness has disappeared’, but with the variety of new urban spaces ‘the perception has changed, and it has become not prestigious to go to parks’ (P_10):

It used to be inappropriate for women to go out … some families didn’t even call them parks … There was a period where everyone had strong reservations … I preferred to stay at home … we saw Westerners and other Arabs, expatriates, bringing their barbeque and preparing their salad. We didn’t have this boldness, because it required us to move around and we didn’t want to move around outdoors, we didn’t want anyone to see us (P_10).

4.1.4. Recreation spaces in desert reserves

Going to the desert periodically, or al-ba’ar in Arabic, is a common local practice during seasons when temperatures drop. During the interviews, 10 participants out of 11 perceived al-ba’ar as a healing landscape and a gateway from the busy urban life:

I feel it is safe. I feel it is pure and clean. Al-ba’ar (desert) is healing. You forget all your worries there … We have mountains, it gives us privacy. I love mountains and wadis (water channels) specially when the water is flowing (P_12).

In comparing the desert to other landscapes that are perceived as ‘places of nature’ such as the forest, one middle-aged participant shared how she viewed the forest when she lived abroad, in relation to what date palms mean to her:

The forest is beautiful, but it didn’t give me that sense of comfort that 5 or 6 palms gave me. I wanted to be able to look far, as far as the eye can see … The forest has trees that block your sight, it stops you from seeing … It is the complete opposite to what I see here in my home country … you can look far as far as your eye can see whether it is the sea or the desert. These places give me an internal feeling of freedom. The forest, no, it gave me some comfort, but it didn’t offer me the freedom that I love to feel (P_10).

Situated on the outskirts beyond Dubai’s mega-development, Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve, managed by Dubai Municipality, was opened to the public in 2018. It is an unfenced reserve with publicly open recreational areas featuring human-made lakes and temporary desert camps. Participants were asked how they felt about the new conservation projects and the replicating of nature through the creation of human-made lakes and oasis within desert reserves. One middle-aged woman commented that these ‘edits’ are valuable to preserve the national identity and affiliation with the native land and to teach the new generation about their heritage:

It is important that we add this ‘edit.’ Al Marmoom desert conservation reserve I consider it a very beautiful and great initiative from Dubai government because it preserves our heritage … Here also in Abu Dhabi in Al Wathba resort, it is a modern resort, but you still see the tent, the desert, the fire pit, the palm trees, even if these palms were planted and didn’t naturally grow … the creation of this oasis gives the new generation a great feeling, a feeling of belonging (P_10).

The city doesn’t want to be traditional, that is the whole point. So many people say it’s fake … of course, it was a desert. We don’t view it as fake. For us, it is development, but for people who have ‘nature’, they are like what is Dubai? It is just buildings (P_08).

While the preference for greenery within the UAE's arid environment, alongside the desire for private gardens in residential villas is seen to have significant environmental impacts, especially regarding water use, the participants’ responses did not indicate concerns for the environmental impacts of such projects. Building non-native artificial landscapes is viewed as a form of progress and an assertion of national identity. Understanding and managing these needs and social perceptions along with environmental impacts is critical for future developments of sustainable landscapes.

4.2. Factors influencing women’s spatial experiences

It became evident from the interviews that there are three key factors that primarily influence women’s preferences towards the use of different landscapes: cultural values related to appearance; privacy; and parenthood.

4.2.1. Cultural values

Cultural values related to privacy and appropriate dress code constructed spatial boundaries within public spaces. One middle-aged woman commented that reaching puberty was the point that shifted her recreational activities to the private realm of her home:

From that moment, there were so many boundaries … at that time, when a girl starts growing up, she starts being shy about her body. We became shy to go out. We used to like to put wgaya (head cover) to cover some features that were growing, like our breasts. I started accepting the situation and I didn’t feel forced, I started liking it. So here we became substantially separate from boys. We started to be home (P_10).

Three young adult mothers commented that public beaches are the places where cultural boundaries mostly influence women’s use of urban spaces. ‘I’m an observer there unless I’m wearing Islamic swimwear and I look like a penguin then I can have fun … you either choose your prestige or have fun’ (P_16). On beaches outside of their home emirate that are mostly used by foreigner’s, especially where other Arab women also dress modestly, one participant noted that she feels more comfortable wearing Islamic swimwear as ‘everyone is wearing it, and no one stares at you.’ The participant then commented that in crowded urban beaches or swimming pools (especially in hotels where there are other Emirati or Gulf nationals), she would not feel confident wearing an Islamic swimwear, and that within those environments she chooses to be an observer:

My husband is open-minded, and he doesn’t mind any of that, so he asked me to come to the pool and I was like are you joking? There is no way, look at how they are looking at me … even if we run away from this, it is there. It is present in our society. Whether you want or not, it will affect you (P_11).

In recognizing the existing power structures, shaped by cultural norms around dress codes and the design of recreational areas to cater to visitors from various nationalities, thus making them feel like ‘outsiders’, two young adult mothers commented:

I don’t feel comfortable when I see specific scenes on the beach, but I tell my kids they are like that their religion is like that and let them live like that … it’s their culture and we have our own culture (P_14).

People need places that they can go to comfortably. But it is very difficult when there are many different nationalities, cultural values, and different boundaries between people in our country especially in Dubai. It is difficult to please everyone (P_11).

4.2.2. Privacy

As cultural values are intertwined with the way of life in the UAE, local municipalities have designated women-only parks and beaches accessible to women and children on specific days. A married young adult participant noted that fences around parks and using bushes and trees for coverage, particularly for women-only parks, are essential as they provide a sense of privacy and seclusion. The respondent went on to add that ‘it is convenient for men as well because to them, the existence of a fence helps them feel that their wives and families are in safe places’ (P_09). However, views on women-only spaces were not universal, with one young adult participant commenting that women-only parks and private places are not important to her:

It doesn’t have to be for women only, I’m open to it because sometimes I want to go out with my husband. We always go out as a family, so we want to go to places that are open to everyone (P_14).

Paradoxically, the interviews revealed that the vast openness of al-ba’ar (desert) offers an unexpected setting of privacy. A middle-aged participant (P_17) remarked; ‘we park our cars in a way that gives us privacy’, and a young adult participant commented on how the landscape is appropriated to fit their needs:

In the ba’ar it is completely different because you have a spacious area. If you see someone who parks 10 meters from you, you will change your location and go 100 meters away from them. And the way they park the car, it is like they are building their own fences … like drawing or building a fence around the area where we will be sitting, cooking, and having fun (P_09).

4.2.3. Parenthood

The interviews demonstrated that parenthood influences women’s choices and experiences within public landscapes. In particular, the scale of the park is an important factor for mothers as smaller parks offer better visibility while the children are playing:

Because it’s small. I can keep an eye on my kids, so they don’t get lost … I’m elevated … the hill overlooks the entire park. I can see everything (P_03).

In the UAE, parks are predominantly self-contained as they are surrounded by high fences and hedges, providing protection from traffic and isolating the space of the park from the surroundings. Therefore, the presence of a fence, security guards, and gates were seen as important features:

If the park was not fenced, I don’t think any families would allow the spouses and the children to go there. That’s my perception. I might be wrong, but knowing my neighbours, knowing my family, if it doesn’t have that fence and there isn’t coverage with the bushes and trees, I don’t think they will send their wives there (P_09).

5. Discussion and conclusion

By foregrounding the participants’ experiences of public and private landscapes, this research highlights the ways in which the concept of, and encounters with ‘nature’ are culturally constructed and framed, and expressed through narratives of sensory embodiments. Within the private home garden, the participants’ engagement with ‘nature’ were expressed through various activities: savouring coffee and fruits, playing in the rain, interacting with domestic animals, and feeling the softness of the sand—all of which are familiar practices that connect them to the land. The sensory embodiments (Law 2014), and women’s acts of landscaping in the domestic space of the hūwī, offer insights into how individuals use familiar practices that assert their connect to the land as a mechanism through which to subvert rapidly changing environments (Elsheshtawy 2019b). Similarly appropriating open spaces in the neighbourhood called (Baraha or sāḥa)—spaces characterised by sparse wild vegetation—into social spaces where mothers met and kids played, reflected the ways in which respondents asserted their agency within the landscape and blurred the line between their private home gardens and the public sphere. Engagements with nature expressed during the interviews by the Emirati women reflect a nature-culture relationship in which conceptualisations of ‘nature’ are strongly linked to the socio-cultural context of the Emirates. Here we see the social production of nature through women’s activities within and conceptualisations of the land, and ontological frameworks of ‘nature’ emerge as a social construction and product of human activities (Glacken 2008).

The rapid urbanization in the UAE, especially in Dubai—driven by the objective ‘to enhance its attractiveness as a tourist destination and as one of the best places to live and to make investments’ (Alzeer and Rosmer 2023, 383)—has brought about a demographic shift over recent decades fundamentally influencing the ways in which landscapes are shaped and how Emirati women navigate these changes. In recent years, landscaping projects, primarily led by private developers, have been shaped not only by the state’s vision of ‘green nature’ as a vehicle of progress, but also by Western ways of relating to ‘nature’ (Haddad 2021). These approaches have entailed mimicking European cities’ green and public spaces to meet the needs of the expatriate population, which constitutes around 92% of the total population, shaping these landscapes as places of consumption (Haddad 2021). The interviews illuminate how the participants position themselves, assert agency, and appropriate spaces within the prevailing power dynamics that have shaped landscape projects. The women’s narratives of ‘nature’ demonstrate that despite cultural values concerning privacy and dress code within the Emirates, a range of socio-cultural factors such as gender, age, marital status, and motherhood influence the extent of conformity to these norms, resulting in different spatial experiences during their engagements with landscapes. Middle-aged women view parks as family-oriented spaces—a perspective shaped by their experiences of visiting newly opened parks in the 1970s and 1980s with their families during their childhood and youth. Throughout that time and into their adulthood, societal norms associated with women’s presence in public, to some extent driven by demographic shifts, led to limitations on their use of public recreational spaces, therefore, these restrictions led them to favour the use of private and semi-private spaces. Conversely, in today’s context, young adults’ desire to use parks is influenced by the availability of commercial amenities and branded restaurants, with concerns over public visibility deemed as irrelevant by this subset of respondents. Accounts by mothers and some married young adults demonstrate an increased desire for privacy, more so to mothers, as it is to an extent connected to concerns related to safety. For mothers, this preference is primarily driven by the need to protect their children from perceived threats usually associated with traffic. Responses by some married young adults indicate that the inclination towards privacy becomes important when and if dressing modestly is important to them (e.g. having the preference for women-only parks) as well as when it resonates with safety concerns expressed by their spouses and families. In such instances, creating enclosures in public parks by having fences, gates, security guards, and hedges rendering public parks as semi-private was deemed important. Among middle-aged women and young adults interviewed, visiting the desert periodically for recreation was expressed as a highly desirable mode of connecting with nature—not only because it echoes traditional practices but also because the landscape provides privacy and was linked to cultural notions of freedom. All young adult mothers, in describing their experiences of visiting beaches, expressed concerns about their children’s exposure to diverse cultural values, particularly in relation to dress code. The cross-examination of these factors illuminates ‘different ways of seeing among women’ (Rose 1993).

Additionally, the interviews revealed that human-made lakes and artificial oasis constructed in the native desert landscape are tightly bound to the desire of preserving the national identity amid a rapidly urbanized context. While the construction of these artificial landscapes, arguably, have no ecological value as they conflict with the native ecosystems (Doherty 2008), the participants viewed them as necessary for preserving the national identity and providing a sense of belonging for the next generation.

Through a representation of the different ways in which the participants engage with ‘nature’, as well as the factors that influence their experiences across public and private landscapes, this research highlights some of the ways in which the socially constructed notions of ‘nature’ and ‘public and private’ spheres are context specific and are constantly changing within the Emirates. The narratives that emerged through the interviews reflect a complex relationship with landscape that extends beyond dialectics of cultural restrictions and the public/private dichotomy, and opens up an intersectional ecofeminist discourse that addresses issues of difference, gender, identity and relationship to landscape within the UAE. Developing a more nuanced understanding of women’s relationship with the landscape is crucial in order to go beyond reductive stereotypes that objectify both women and the land, and reduce their experiences to a singular nominal social narrative. Expanding on the existing knowledge base to create an intersectional understanding of the relationship between women and their environment is critical to the development of inclusive, equitable and sustainable landscapes.

Ethics approval

This study received ethical approval from Cambridge University’s Research Ethics Committee (Faculty of Architecture and History of Art) on 13 November 2022. Consent Form and Participant Information Sheet were submitted to the interviewees. Approval to use the visual materials provided by the participants was obtained.

Acknowledgment

We thank the anonymous reviewers and Gender, Place, Culture editor for their time and insightful comments during the review process of this article. We also would like to acknowledge all the informants who supported us in finding participants for this research. We thank our informant who accompanied the researcher during multiple visits to Al Khazan Park and helped with the on-site interviews. We are grateful for all the participants who generously dedicated time to share their experiences and provided visual materials for this research. Lastly, the findings and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fatma Mhmood

Fatma Mhmood is a PhD candidate at the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. Her research interest lies at the intersection of rapid urbanization, arid landscapes, gender, and postcolonial studies with a focus on the Arab Gulf region. Having a background in architecture, urban design, and design studies, she aims through her work to advocate for better forms of ecologically supportive development. Fatma holds a Master in Design studies with a concentration in urbanism, landscape and ecology from Harvard University, a Master in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University, and a BArch from the American University of Sharjah. Fatma practiced in New York City and Dubai working on multiscalar design projects.

Minna Sunikka-Blank

Minna Sunikka-Blank is Professor of Architecture and Environmental Policy at Cambridge University, and a Fellow in Churchill College. Using participatory methods and filmmaking, her research focuses on social equity in energy transitions. She has authored over 70 publications and her insights have influenced housing policies in Germany and India, and featured in BBCArts’ Animated Thinking series.