UAE author Omar Ghobash on how his father's assassination shaped his life

One could hardly miss the grief in the eyes of Emirati diplomat Omar Saif Ghobash 44 years after his father was assassinated in a terrorist attack in Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Omar was only six when his father Saif Ghobash, the UAE’s first Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, was killed by a bullet that was targeting his guest, Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, in 1977.

The trauma, he reveals, has haunted him ever since.

“I was an aggressive, violent and angry child. I did not know why,” says Omar, the UAE’s Assistant Minister for Culture and Public Diplomacy, while speaking of his upcoming novel at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

The novel, tentatively named 25/10 - the date of his father’s death - imagines the late diplomat’s final hours in first person, leading up to the moment he was shot, and picturing his take on today’s events from the afterlife in a mix of satire and fiction.

Omar’s second book, after Letters to a Young Muslim, captures his ability to deal with grief, trauma and pain of loss, and depicts the profound impact his father’s loss had in shaping his character today as a diplomat, author and businessman.

The father of four knew the choices he had early on, and building a better future for himself, his family and his nation was one of them.

Leading a long successful career in diplomacy as a former UAE ambassador to France and Russia, Omar stands out for the depth of his character, intellect and advocacy of arts, culture and literature.

His subtle humour, humility and effortless ability to connect with different cultures stand out in his public appearances. Raised in a mixed-race family, tolerance and acceptance of differences form the core of his character.

Calm and laid back, he brings a charismatic presence and wisdom in his words, often marked with a subtle emotion that rises in the form of tears in his eyes once the topic of his father’s demise comes up, even though he is 50.

Writing, Omar says, has served as the medium through which he channels his anger and delves into his trauma.

“The desire to forget the past is rooted in Arab culture. We always want to move forward, but I worry that if we aren’t looking at the past, rethinking and retrieving, then we are not building the future.”

“For me to be able to piece together a narrative of what he did, provided me with tremendous satisfaction.”

In a way, it has made him more compassionate, he says.

“People always speak of compassion and empathy. But if you are not delving into your own trauma and other people’s trauma, how real is that?”

Turning points

Growing up to a Russian mother and four siblings - three brothers and a sister - Omar says a fierce fight at school and ranking last in class were the first incidents that transformed his path.

“In weekly rankings at the International School of Choueifat, where I studied, I came last. I scored 3/20 in an exam, and my colleague who scored 18/20 was deeply upset. That was when I started studying hard to rank among the top five in my class.”

He was 25 when he started the journey of penning down his father’s final day - an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of his father’s life and the choices he made.

The demise of Saif Ghobash came at a critical stage in his son’s life and the nation’s journey. The country had announced the union six years earlier and Ras Al Khaimah, his hometown, had joined the federation in 1972. Saif had big plans and ambitions for his nation when he died at the age of 43.

“Back then, I used to think that 43 is old, but when I turned 43, I realised life was just starting for me,” Omar reflects.

Birthdays have been the markers of Omar’s life. At the age of 43, he released his first book, Letters to a Young Muslim, which was hailed for its thought-provoking stance against the rising threat of Islamic extremism. It was dedicated to his son, whom he named Saif, after his own father.

Now at the age of 50, which he celebrated a few months before the UAE’s Golden Jubilee, Omar is reflecting on the power of choice in his new novel through his father’s imagined life, taking it as a drive to carry on the mission.

“[The novel] is about how short life is, narrated through the choices my father could have made. He wanted to be a man of justice, not a man of politics, and he stood by these values and choices.”

“I suspect he would say I wish I had focused on myself rather than society that is already going a certain way.”

Joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in his mid-thirties as an ambassador to Russia in 2008 was a default for Omar.