Omani lady pushes boundaries, becomes automobile repair expert

Masirah: Motorists who are looking to get their vehicle checked can definitely call on Zainab for her services with the confidence that their vehicles are in good hands.

When Zainab bint Ali Al Yarabi tells you what she does for a living, you might be a little bit taken aback. It is, after all, not very often that you find women taking up jobs as automobile repair experts.

“My father is the real motivator for me to be who I am today,” says one of Masirah Island’s only female vehicle repair experts. “In 2006, my father asked me if I was ready to work with him instead of sitting at home looking for a job and I agreed to work with my father as a salesman in a new spare parts store.”

In the 70s, Zainab’s father set up what is considered to be the first garage on the island. Zainab joined the shop floor helping customers pick up parts for their vehicles.

During her spare time or when there were no customers in the shop, she would go to her father’s garage adjacent to the store where she would learn from workers what the best spares were for the vehicles. Her job did raise plenty of eyebrows, however. “I was a girl who worked in a spare parts store, so, that was surprising to society,” she said.

“When my father did see me observing the workers in the garage, he’d ask me to go back to the store, but I would tell him there were no customers, so I had come here to gain knowledge and help the business rake in more profits.

After her father unfortunately passed away in 2020, Zainab became increasingly involved alongside her brother in overseeing the garage. Women customers who came to the garage to get their vehicles serviced were naturally more comfortable speaking with her.

“When my female friends and some other women on Masirah tell me about problems with their vehicles, I sometimes go there myself to take their vehicles to the garage, as in our custom, it is not possible for women to come to industrial areas and workshops,” she explained.

“There is also often no female representative to help them in such areas. Some of them, however, still come to the garage, so, with my customers, the first thing I do is find out the location and cause of the fault in their ride.

“If it is a simple fault, then I repair it myself, but otherwise, I instruct our workers to repair it accordingly,” added the 41-year-old, whose work has gained her plenty of fame and one day she wishes to open her own garage.