Dubai: History was made at India Club, Dubai, on Saturday as an all-women team from Indian Women in Dubai (IWD) took part in a Dahi Handi celebration, marking what organisers described as the first all-women Dahi Handi team in the Middle East.

Organised by India Club, the celebration brought together more than 1,000 attendees and opened with music, dance and traditional cultural performances. Celebrity DJ Buddha energised the gathering, while Swamini Dhol Tasha, an all-women Dhol Tasha band, led a procession of women participants from IWD into the venue.

The atmosphere was charged with excitement as the women prepared to take on one of the most physically demanding traditions associated with Janmashtami celebrations.

For the first time in the Middle East, an all-women team stepped onto the Dahi Handi floor, formed a human pyramid and attempted to break the earthen pot suspended overhead.

Three Attempts, One Unbreakable Team
The IWD team made three attempts to reach the matka.

Each attempt ended with the pyramid collapsing before the women could reach their goal. But after every fall, the participants immediately helped one another up, regrouped and rebuilt the pyramid.

The crowd responded with loud cheers, turning each setback into a moment of encouragement.

“This Dahi Handi was more than a matka. It was a statement. A statement that when women come together, we rise so, so high,” said Reema Mahajan, founder of Indian Women in Dubai.

The participants came from different walks of life and were not assembled as a professional team of athletes. They included mothers, daughters, wives, entrepreneurs and caregivers who came together for a shared challenge.

Their repeated attempts highlighted the spirit of teamwork, trust and resilience that organisers wanted the event to represent.

“Never, I repeat, never mistake our softness for weakness. When we trust each other, we become stronger. And when we stand on each other’s shoulders, there is no limit to how high we can go,” Mahajan said.

The Matka Finally Breaks
On their third attempt, the women successfully reached the matka and broke it.

As the yoghurt spilled from the shattered pot, the venue erupted in celebration.

For IWD, which has a community of around 150,000 women, the moment represented more than the successful completion of a traditional challenge. Organisers said it was a celebration of what can happen when women support and lift one another.

“This was not a team that formed to prove women are like men. It was formed to prove that women can be anything they choose to be,” the organisers said.

The team’s participation was not framed as a competition with men or as an attempt to replicate a male-dominated tradition. Instead, it was presented as an expression of women’s collective strength and solidarity.

“She did not need to be stronger than everyone. She just needed to know that together, women are unstoppable,” Mahajan said.

A Celebration Beyond the Matka
The significance of the event extended beyond the Dahi Handi itself. The women’s participation offered a powerful visual representation of cooperation, with each member relying on the others to reach the top.

For the participants and spectators, the three attempts became a story of perseverance: falling, standing up, rebuilding and trying again.

The event concluded with the successful breaking of the matka, but for the IWD community, the larger achievement was the team effort that made it possible.

The organisers thanked every woman who participated, supported the team and attended the celebration, describing the historic moment as a collective achievement.

In Dubai, a centuries-old Indian tradition became the backdrop for a new chapter—one in which women stood on each other’s shoulders, quite literally, and showed how high they could rise together.