UAE female fighter pilot receives Game Changer Award at UN

UN, New York - Al Mansouri served the army in various capacities before starting in-flight training.

Mariam Al Mansouri, an F-16 fighter pilot of the UAE Air Force, on Wednesday received the Asia Game Changer Award at a function at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York.

Al Mansouri, who is among nine awardees, is a role model for women throughout the Arab world for battling stereotypes and terror, from the air, said the Asia Society, organisers of the Game Changer Awards.

Al Mansouri served the army in various capacities before starting in-flight training.

As a fully qualified, highly trained, combat-ready pilot and wing leader in the UAE Air Force and Air Defence, Al Mansouri was an active member of the UAE air force team participating in the airstrikes conducted by the Global Coalition to Combat Daesh against the terror organisation in Syria. She received the Mohammed bin Rashid Pride of the Emirates medal for excellence in her field.

Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's Permanent Representative to the UN, attended the awards ceremony along with representatives of states, senior UN officials, and members of the diplomatic community at the UN. Nusseibeh congratulated Al Mansouri for the award, saying the recognition is an honour for all Emirati women, who always seek excellence scientifically and practically in all fields whether locally, regionally and internationally.

She lauded the general policy adopted by the Government of the UAE as a key priority to ensure that women leaders were provided real opportunities for empowerment.

She noted that Al Mansouri, the first squadron leader in the UAE Air

Force, has set a living example of the role of the woman in a moderate, tolerant Muslim country like the UAE.

The Asia Society said that the Asia Game Changers Awards are given in recognition of making a transformative and positive difference to the future of Asia and the world.

Awardees are selected through a global survey of more than 1,000 thought leaders. The 2015 awardees are:

1. Asia Game Changer of the Year: Manny Pacquiao (The Philippines) Humanitarian, world-famous boxing champion, and member of the Philippines House of Representatives

"for using his sport, and his star power, as sources for good".

2. Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and 3. Shuji Nakamura (Japan/US) 2014 Nobel Laureates in Physics and inventors of a new energy-efficient light source - the blue LED

Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution with headquarters in New York, centers in Hong Kong and Houston, and offices in Los Angeles, Manila, Mumbai, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, and Washington, DC. - Wam