Meet the Emirati woman fighting crime during her 26 years at Dubai Police

Dubai: During her 26 years at Dubai Police, Captain Ganima Al Muttawa has rewritten the perception of women’s role in policing and accumulated achievements as a criminal investigator, cracking crime mysteries one after another.

Capt Ganima joined the force in 1993 as a sergeant and reported for duty at Muraqqabat Police Station after she passed the special military training as a fresh high school graduate. Although she obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management, her passion for working in policing and criminal investigation led her towards fulfilling her dream.

Her journey

“Since my early days in the force, I was taken by the investigators’ work I witnessed during my night-shift duties. I grew more curious over time and couldn’t rest until I asked the criminal investigators in my station to teach me the basics. They taught me how to receive reports, utilise the investigation techniques and criminal research and procedures, interrogate and ask questions, and collect and analyse data,” she said.

“As I became more familiar with the daily reports, my appetite to take on more criminal investigation tasks increased. I trained myself with 20 specialisation courses and sought the guidance of public prosecutors in the police stations to benefit from their legal expertise in criminal cases.”

Capt Ganima proved to be an excellent asset as she worked on many crucial investigations reported to the station. In 1996, she earned the title of ‘criminal investigator’ and began her journey.

First case

She remembered her first case as a specialised criminal investigator. “I was assigned to investigate a shoplifting case involving a woman. I was proud to close the case by myself and referred the offender to the concerned teams at the public prosecution,” she added.

From that point on, many criminal cases followed, and Capt Ganima handled and showed enormous capabilities that earned her a deputy head position at the Criminal Registration Section at Muraqqabat Police Station. “My experience as a criminal investigator over the past 26 years proves that women’s role in this field is as crucial as men. They excel in cases involving women and children for their ability to obtain statements with witnesses from both categories and show more flexibility when approached by a female officer.”

Supportive colleagues

She added: “The Dubai Police, under the directives of Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, and Expert Major General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, provides women with extraordinary support and empowerment to engage them in various fields, including the field of a criminal investigation, which I am exceedingly grateful for.”

Section Head

Last June, the Dubai Police General Command inaugurated Al Khawaneej Police Station. Capt Ganima has been appointed as Head of the Criminal Registration Section in the Station, performing assigned significant tasks, including supervising the collection of crimes-related data, submitting reports and statistics, reviewing cases to be referred to the Public Prosecution, and assigning tasks to employees alongside administrative work.

Since the beginning of this year, she has handled and supervised 661 criminal reports in the police station’s jurisdiction area. Moreover, since the establishment of the Al Khawaneej Police Station, she handed 306 reports in the second half of 2021.

During her professional journey, Capt Ganima obtained many badges of appreciation, appreciation certificates, and excellence awards. She succeeded in balancing work duties and her role as a mother, so she was awarded the ‘Mother Idol’ award in 2020. She was also nominated to compete in the Family Idol award of the Minister of Interior.