British Omani Society

Abdullah Al Alawi is currently the Learning Programme Designer at YouThinkers and is the writer of two plays: Hot Potato and Omaniyya Enthroned. Hot Potato is a play focusing on a single street in Victorian England filled with characters from the periphery of society. Their humour helps them brave their position in society until the Mayor visits and the narrator switches the roles of the characters for the play’s conclusion. Omaniyaa Enthroned tells the story of an intelligent woman whose years of learning help her throw off the oppressive rule of the Portuguese in Oman and liberate Omanis from the cruelties of colonial occupation. In this podcast, we dive into these plays as well as discuss the current and future state of playwriting in Oman and the modern world.
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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
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Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
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Saleh Al Shaibani is the Director of Career Guidance and Industry Liaison at Modern College of Business and Science, based in Muscat. He started his career at Muscat International Airport in 1982 as an Aviation Engineer and went on to manage the operations of Air Navigational Systems.  He is also a freelance journalist for local, regional and international media.  His journalism work, has over the years made him well connected with both government and business leaders through these connections he now helps young people find jobs. He also counsels students and graduates on challenges they face  from searching for jobs, choosing their career path to setting up their businesses.
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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
Instagram: angloomanisociety
Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
Facebook: The Anglo-Omani Society

Jody Pritt is the Director of International Student & Scholar Services at Georgia State University. Currently, she is studying towards her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri-Columbia. 

Her fascination with Oman flourished when she connected with a group of Omani Scholarship students during her time at the University of South Carolina. This introduction inspired her to develop a comprehensive collaboration between Oman and the University of South Carolina. Later this year she will present a paper at the Omani Renaissance Conference at Georgia State University. In this podcast, we explore the unique experience of international education for students and its influence on Oman’s renaissance generally.
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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
Instagram: angloomanisociety
Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
Facebook: The Anglo-Omani Society

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai is CEO of the National Bank of Oman (NBO), a bank that over the last year has donated over RO 1 Million to the Covid relief fund. Their recent efforts include providing fully equipped ambulances and medical equipment. 

In this exclusive interview, we discuss the support NBO has given to its customers and the wider country during the pandemic, along with its longstanding charitable and community efforts for Omanis. 
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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
Instagram: angloomanisociety
Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
Facebook: The Anglo-Omani Society

Major General Robin Searby served in the Dhofar Campaign from 1973-175 in the newly formed Armoured Car Squadron. He returned to Oman as the Senior British Loan Service Officer from 2000-2004. In this podcast, he reflects on an extraordinary career in an extraordinary country.
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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
Instagram: angloomanisociety
Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
Facebook: The Anglo-Omani Society

Ali Mohammadi is the founder of OmanTripper, a travel & tour service organization based out of Muscat, Oman. Ali is a chemical engineer by training with degrees from the University of Canterbury and the University of Cambridge and works full-time in Muscat. Besides his demanding job, Ali also runs OmanTripper platform with the objective of offering the most rewarding and authentic travel experiences for visitors to Oman, combining ventures to Oman's hidden gems with a taste of its rich heritage and generous hospitality. Ali is very passionate about nature, the outdoors and photography, and attempts to reflect these passions in the tours offered through his OmanTripper platform. You can check out OmanTripper on www.omantripper.com 

Ali discusses his reason for offering guided tours, his favourite places, and must see locations!
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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
Instagram: angloomanisociety
Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
Facebook: The Anglo-Omani Society

Arabella Dorman is an award winning, internationally renowned artist and one of Britain’s leading portrait painters. Arabella’s work explores the realities of conflict today, its immediate impacts and long-term consequences. 

She worked as an officially accredited war artist in Iraq and Afghanistan for over a decade, and in more recent years in Palestine, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Arabella enjoys a prominent reputation as a public speaker, fundraiser, and has recently been awarded winner of the Oman Masterpiece 2021. She was listed as one of BBC’s Top 100 Women and Salt Magazine’s 100 Most Inspiring Women. Her humanitarian work has been profiled across national and international television, radio and print, including New York Times, BBC, CNN, Aljizeera, Radio 4, BBC World Service, and featured on the front cover of The Times, The Guardian and The Sunday Times Magazine. 

Winner of the Global Mosaic Award 2019, and shortlisted for the Arts & Christianity Awards 2019, Arabella’s installations Flight and Suspended have been globally acclaimed in raising awareness about the consequences of war and the forced displacement of people. First premiered in St James’s Church Piccadilly, Suspended toured the UK, and was most notably hung in Canterbury and Leicester cathedrals (2017/18). Suspended is now on exhibit in Thomas’s School Battersea, London. Arabella lives in London with her husband, two children and two Irish terriers.
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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
Instagram: angloomanisociety
Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
Facebook: The Anglo-Omani Society

Masoud Al-Rawahi is a founder and Executive Director at PhzaeRo, a software development and digital consulting company that aims at developing Oman’s digital talent and tech environment. Masoud is also a co-founder and managing partner of Phaze Ventures, an Omani venture capital firm and innovation platform. Masoud has worked and studied internationally and his current position involves partnering with private and public entities across Oman to promote digital innovation. In this podcast we will speak with him about his background and about his transition into entrepreneurship, the challenges facing modern tech environments and Oman’s possible future developments.
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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
Instagram: angloomanisociety
Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
Facebook: The Anglo-Omani Society

Aisha Said Al Shukaili is a Senior Continuous Improvement (CI) coach at Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO). Aisha began her CI career in 2015, and since she has become the first accredited CI coach in PDO and the first female in PDO to be awarded the Six Sigma Black Belt certification.

Prior to her career in the petroleum industry, Aisha worked as a Medical Physicist in the radiotherapy department at The Royal Hospital (Oman) for one and half years, after graduating from Sultan Qaboos University with a BSc in Physics and Medical Physics. 

Before joining the CI function, Aisha was working in PDO as a petroleum engineer in the Petrophysics field for 7 years.

Aisha is also a prominent member of the Oman Rare Disease Society and a has a special needs son with Cerebral Palsy, a neurological movement disorder.

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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
Instagram: angloomanisociety
Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
Facebook: The Anglo-Omani Society

Franziska Fay is a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Centre Normative Orders at the University of Frankfurt and from October to December 2020 she was a visiting research fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) on the Oman Grant sponsored by the Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Science.

Her research focuses on children and young people, politics, and belonging in Swahili-speaking contexts. Her first book “Disputing Discipline: Child Protection, Punishment and Piety in Zanzibar Schools” will be published by Rutgers University Press in April 2021. Regionally she works in Zanzibar, along the Swahili coast of Tanzania and Kenya, as well as in Oman.

She has recently started to work on a new book project, “Living with Absence: Youth Identity and Belonging and the ‘Zanzibar Diaspora’” that foregrounds second and third generation Zanzibari diasporans’ contemporary translocal identity formation. At ZMO, and in the context of this project, she is currently focusing on “Young Omani Swahili-speakers and the Zanzibar Diaspora” to better understand their notions of citizenship, absence and belonging on the diasporic spectrum between the Swahili Coast and Oman.
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Anglo Omani Society accounts:
Instagram: angloomanisociety
Linkedin: The Anglo-Omani Society
Twitter: @AngloOmaniSOC
Facebook: The Anglo-Omani Society