The Gulf is not one story, Western audiences need a better way to understand the region

Rihab Abouzaki grew up surrounded by journalists, broadcasters, and professionals whose work shaped public conversation across the Middle East. That environment exposed her early to media, strategy, and how ideas move through a culture, but she chose a different route. When she left for Dubai, she was intent on building her own career, starting in an entry-level data-entry role and working her way into design, branding, and cross-border business.

Over the next two decades, she moved through FMCG, manufacturing, and luxury goods across the Gulf. In the UAE, she helped introduce Dettol’s first consumer antibacterial wipes, taking them from medical settings into everyday households. At Marico, she managed regional brand strategy for Parachute, strengthening its presence with Arabic consumers. She later led a full-scale China–Dubai manufacturing operation producing metal gifts, special-edition products, and B2B jewelry and accessory lines for Middle Eastern clients.

Now based in Portland, Oregon, Rihab is the Advertising Manager and Creative Director at This N That Communications, a media and advertising company producing campaigns for clients across the GCC. Her work focuses on helping tourism boards, luxury travel brands, and real estate developers in the UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia reach US and other Western audiences, a task that, in practice, is far more complex than placing English-language ads from abroad.