From crafts to cake business, prison workouts: Two Dubai inmates rebuild their lives.
A teacher who was jailed in Dubai in a drug-related case later turned decorative craft skills she learned in prison into a successful cake business, Brigadier Jameela Al Zaabi has said. The former director of Dubai Police’s women’s prison recounted the case on the Arab Cast podcast, hosted by Ahmed Al Zarouni.
Al Zaabi offered a personal account of how courses, paid work and structured routines are used at the facility, while stressing that imprisonment still means losing one’s freedom.
A turning point
The woman had been working as a teacher in a Gulf country, Al Zaabi said. During a stopover in Dubai while travelling from her home country, she was arrested after a man she knew persuaded her to carry pills, claiming they were for headaches.
Al Zaabi described the woman as devastated by the contrast between her former profession and her new reality behind bars. She recalled the teacher saying: “I used to teach generations. Now I have ended up here in prison.”
While in custody, the woman enrolled in courses and took up handicrafts and decorative work. Al Zaabi said she also converted to Islam and memorised about 15 parts of the Quran.
According to Al Zaabi, the teacher was sentenced to around 10 years in prison but was released after serving approximately four and a half years, in recognition of her good conduct and Quran study.
After leaving the UAE, the woman stayed in touch and sent photographs of the cake shop she had opened with her sister.
She later adapted the decorative techniques she had learned in prison to cake decoration. The shop became well known and built a strong customer base.
The skills gave the former inmate a way to earn a living, Al Zaabi said. Vocational opportunities at Dubai’s women’s prison were also highlighted in 2018, when workshops included crafts, tailoring and decorative design.
Building an honest living
Reflecting on her tenure at the women’s prison, Al Zaabi said inmates followed a structured daily schedule, with set times for meals and exercise, followed by opportunities to enrol in courses or pursue crafts.
Some inmates also took on paid work and received wages in cash, she said.
Inmates who made handicrafts or other products received a share of the proceeds when their work was sold, Al Zaabi said. Some chose sewing or crochet, with the arrangement designed to help them learn the value of earning an honest living.
She added that inmates were not responsible for general prison cleaning, which was handled by a company. Their cleaning duties were limited to the areas around their own beds.
Gym routine
Al Zaabi also recalled the case of a former female inmate whom she described as a fashion influencer. After her release, the woman said she had lost weight by regularly using the prison gym. Her transformation prompted calls from people asking whether they could also enter the facility to lose weight.
However, Al Zaabi stressed that such programmes did not change the fundamental reality of imprisonment.
“There is nothing more precious than freedom,” she said.
