UAE: Why Two Cousins Launched A Business Of Card Games

Based on 'familiar' Emirati caricatures, two cousins came up with the idea of making a card game to tackle the generational gap that they faced when interacting with young family members and friends, who would spend most of their time either on phones or engaging in surface-level conversations.

This card game, according to one of the cousins, goes deeper than that and tries to connect Emiratis with their culture.

Emiratis Najla Al Hajeri and Jawaher Al Harmoudi created their business of card games,“Around Our Freej” , at a time where they were both preoccupied with heavy university workload. However, that didn't deter them from committing long hours to their small business, which consists of three card games, geared toward an Emirati audience for their familiar cultural markers.

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Beyond offering these card games to family and friends, they sell them at an online store and also at pop-up shops at different events across Sharjah.

Their latest card game, La Tz3al (don't be sad), takes on different characters that are intimate in Emirati spaces, like the myth of 'Um Al Dowais', or ''Ami Mansoor', the cool uncle that still keeps a Nokia in his pocket.

As of now, their handle, Aroundourfreej, on Instagram has 4.7K followers,

It was on one regular Friday when the two cousins went to their grandmother's house for a family gathering when the generational gap hit them. After seeing how little in-depth conversations they had with other relatives, especially the younger ones, Najla and Jawaher sought to change that.“Growing up, we realised that there was a very big generational gap between the older generation and the younger generation. So, through that, we wanted to create something to combine the two together in like family or friend gatherings,” Najla said.

Najla said,“it was a lot of phone communication, phone games, everything on the phone. No one was really getting to know each other in different levels or in depth.”

One of the card games, La Tehlaf (Don't swear) works by essentially interrogating and working with other members of the group to find a“mole”, which requires a lot of strategic communication and analysis.

“Anytime I've ever played any of our games with different groups, I always see a [new] side of them. It's so refreshing,”

Even though Najla has graduated, she started her business with her cousin three years ago, when she was a sophomore in university. She said the two had a dedicated and strict schedule that they adhered to despite everything.

“Me and my cousin have a specific day of the week that we don't miss no matter what happens -- exams, the midterms, anything. Our business is as big a priority as our studies. So just like I dedicate, for example, three hours to study for my midterm, I will dedicate the same three hours for my business,” she said.

All the while, she graduated with two minors and successfully launched her business with her cousin at the same time.“I think it's about time management and discipline,” she said, adding it was the same for her cousin.

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