In a biographical manner, Amna Khalid Al-Hetmi sheds the light on the life of Nadira, the manicurist. Nadira is a simple working woman, whose greatness stems from her simplicity. Amna is an Information Systems junior at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.

“Rounda or square madam?” she asked, soaking my fingers into a bowl of warm water. “Little round, little square” I replied, “and I’m not the madam, she’s the madam”, I joked pointing to my mom who was having her nails done next to me. They both laughed. As usual, my mom brought up the topic of how we “girls” are different from our mothers and grandmothers. I rolled my eyes and smiled, and then looked at Nadira, the manicurist expecting her to be doing the same thing. But found her listening passionately to my mom’s criticisms. She kept nodding at what my mom said and she was responding to her in broken Arabic. My mom was jumping from topic to another and Nadira had something to say about each and every topic whether it is social or political, showing how knowledgeable she is. They talked about a lot of things from raising children to the Bush shoe incident.

Unlike other manicurists in the beauty saloon, Nadira was different. While, they were all young, she looked very old. All the ladies that were working there were walking around and talking to each other, but she just stayed quiet at her corner. She looked out of place. The deep wrinkles covering her face looked like a roadmap. Her reading glasses gave the impression that she couldn’t see clearly and made her look even older. Nadira had dark brown skin and noticeable Indian features. She was wearing a worn out, long sleeved floral shirt with a long brown skirt. Her white Hijab made her stand out, because none of the other ladies working there were wearing any since it’s a women’s only saloon.

Nadira comes to the saloon everyday from nine to five. She holds peoples’ hands everyday and listens to their complaints everyday. Every once in a while someone would ask her “How are you Nadira?” and she would just say “Alhamdulelah.” She’s just the old lady who does the nails, nothing more, nothing less. She was invisible to most people, even to her co-workers. She’s not much of a talker, but she would listen to people for hours without showing any signs of boredom or annoyance. What most people don’t know is that there is more to Nadira than what meets the eyes.

“I don’t understand why he won’t give me an A after all this hard work to push my average from an 81 to an 89…I’m just tired of studying!… How about we take a semester off?” I joked to my friend on the phone while Nadira was working on my pedicure. After I ended the call, Nadira said “Mashallah habibti, you go American university no? My son go American university North Carolina. I show you?” I said “okay” uninterestedly. She took out her brown leather wallet from her white saloon robe, opened it and handed me some pictures. A young man in a blue surgeon uniform was in one of the pictures. An Indian girl, a white western man with two kids was in another picture. A girl and a boy holding a cricket bat were in another one. They all looked related. Yes, they were all her children, the surgeon in the US, the married girl studying dentistry in Australia, the girl and boy both studying law in Canada.

Nadira is a wife and a mother of two sons, two daughters, and a grandmother to two grandkids. She gave a lot for her children to provide them with the life she never had. Although she was a bright student when she was in school, her father never allowed her to complete her studies. Instead, because her mother passed away at an early age, her father forced her to stay at home and raise her brothers and sisters and help with the housework. Getting into college was always a dream for Nadira. But she put her dream aside when she got married and had her children. Taking care of her husband and kids became her number one priority. Her kids were everything to her. Despite all the changes in her life, she never lost the passion for learning. She educated herself through reading newspapers and watching TV.

After her husband got a job offer in Qatar, they all moved with him. In Qatar, she got her kids into schools and decided to help her husband by working as well. She spent the last twenty years of her life here in Doha. Her youngest two were born here. Today, her four children are studying in universities abroad. Nadira saves every Riyal she and her husband make to help her kids pursue their dreams. When she wasn’t working in the saloon, she would go to houses and try to make as much money as she can to send to her children. Each and every one of her kids is working while studying.

Nadira told me her lifestory with no signs of regret. She sounded satisfied and proud of the person she is today. “Nadira, are you thinking of getting into college one day for a degree?” I asked hoping for a “yes” although expecting an “I’m too old for college” but she replied proudly “my children bring me four degrees Inshallah!” Nadira showed me that there is no degree and no job in the world more important than parenting. Instead of being a doctor or a lawyer, she made two doctors and two lawyers. Nadira didn’t find a cure to cancer, she didn’t find peace in the Middle East, she didn’t get a Nobel Prize, but she is making a difference in her own way. She’s not just the manicurist; she’s much more than that. She’s a great mother and a great person.