FaceOf: Rania Nashar, CEO of Samba Financial Group

Saturday Oct. 27 marked the conclusion of Tanween, Ithra’s creativity season in Dhahran. The 17-day artistic event started on Oct. 11 and hosted more than 40 workshops, 61 speakers, 25 artworks, 7 live shows and over 100,000 visitors in an atmosphere filled with creativity and awe. On the last day of Tanween the adventurer Raha Moharrak shared her journey of exploration as the first Saudi woman to climb Mount Everest in her talk “Sand to Stars.”

Raha explained how it all started with the word “No.” “I never imagined that a word this tiny would change my life this way and open so many amazing doors.”   

Raha told the audience how she had found out about Mount Kilimanjaro, looked it up and decided that she wanted to go up the highest peak in Africa. “People’s reaction to my decision to climb the mountain was the final push I needed to actually climb the mountain!” She explained: “People pointed out to me that I couldn’t possibly climb it because I’m a Saudi girl, and that was it!” Raha decided to prove them wrong.

She decided to go after her calling as she knew there was more out in this world to discover. “My love of adventure was too big! I had something waiting for me out there. I can’t explain how I knew it, I just did.” 

Raha added: “And that’s a lesson I want you to learn: To listen to your gut, to listen to your heart — it’s ok not to go with the crowd, it’s ok to be different.”  

Her decision had been made but she needed all the courage in the world to tell her dad. “I called my dad and told him I wanted to climb Kilimanjaro. I went rumbling on about all the information I knew, like a broken Wikipedia page. I was too nervous to stop.” She continued: “And when I stopped finally I heard it. He simply said: No.”

That did not stop Raha from trying to convince her dad. She finally succeeded because her love for adventure was far greater than her fear of rejection. Raha then talked about her first mountain climbing expedition. “When I went to Tanzania, I started climbing Kilimanjaro and reached the peak. I knew that this would not be the last time I touch the sky.” She has not stopped climbing ever since, and kept climbing one mountain after the other. 

Raha described the moment she fell in love with Mount Everest. “I had arrived at Everest Base Camp and there was the same mountain I used to see in books, but this time I saw it with my own eyes. Then I started to climb the highest mountain in the world.” 

Raha shared how she felt the moment she was going up the Hillary Step, which every person who climbed the mountain had gone over. “At that moment it didn’t matter that I was a Saudi and it didn’t matter that I was a girl.” She continued: “Nothing mattered other than the fact that I believed that I deserved to stand up there and that I believed I could get there. I was born in the desert and I had touched the sky!”

Raha concluded her talk with how she answers the often-asked question: why would an Arab, a Saudi girl, attempt such dangerous mountains? “The truth is that I climbed simply because I believed I could, I didn’t care about being the youngest or first girl in history, I would still have climbed it if I was anonymous. Because all I wanted was to prove to myself that I can attempt the impossible and maybe even achieve it.” She closed by saying: “Please don’t let your dreams feel out of reach. If I can why can’t you!” Raha Moharrak climbed 8 mountains in 12 months, including in Antarctica.