Come solo.
Leave with friends.
ADMovement is a women's community in Abu Dhabi.
Every week there's something on. Padel, a dance class, a boat, a quiet night over board games.
Once a month we get on a call together and each pick one thing to work on.
Once a month we all meet up in person.
There's a WhatsApp group where it happens in between.
Membership is AED 270 a year. Events are paid separately, at member prices.
Every friendship costs you something.
Either you dim your deen to fit in, or you dim your ambition to fit in. You have friends. You don't have friends you can pray with and build with. The women who match your ambition don't match your values, and the ones who match your values don't match your ambition, so you carry two half-friendships and nobody who knows the whole of you.
This is the room where you do neither.
And none of it changes on its own. That is the part nobody says.
This is what it actually looks like.
Dance, padel, a treasure hunt, a boat, a quiet night over board games. You don't plan it or chase anyone to come. The same faces are there.
A call in the first week where you say where you actually want to go. You leave with a theme, a challenge, and daily check-ins so you don't drop it by day four.
One evening that pulls the month together, and the one you can bring a guest to. Twice a year we leave the city, once a year the country.
Every Tuesday we run a call for whoever joined that week. Twenty minutes, a few new faces, and a couple of members who will be at the event on Wednesday looking out for you. By the time you get there you already know someone.
You never have to plan any of it. It's already planned.
Everything except the monthly gathering is members only.
This is what our community members say about us.
What you can't buy at the door.
Anyone can buy a ticket to the monthly gathering. Everything below only works if you keep turning up.
- Something on, every week. Fifty-two nights a year. Same faces, and you never plan any of it.
- The monthly call, and the challenge after it. Daily check-ins, all month, everyone working the same thing at the same time.
- The group chat. Where it all happens between events. The whole community, and smaller rooms inside it for runners, readers, mothers, founders, and your neighbourhood.
- A guest pass every month. Bring the friend who needs this more than you do.
- A welcome call every Tuesday. For whoever joined that week, so your first event is never a room full of strangers.
- First to know. You hear about the retreat, the trips and each month's events before anyone else.
Nothing bad happens if you don't join. That's the problem.
It will be September again. You will have had the same conversation about how hard it is to make friends as an adult, maybe ten more times. You will have started four things on your own and finished one. Your calendar will be full and your phone will be quiet, and the women you would actually want in your life will still be somewhere in this city, not knowing you exist.
It isn't a disaster. It is just another year of almost.
The other version starts on a Wednesday. You walk in not knowing anyone.
Then it compounds. You end up in conversations you didn't know you needed, with women who ask better questions than you are used to being asked. You get home from a Tuesday feeling more like yourself, not less. You start something in January and you are still doing it in April, because you are not doing it on your own and someone notices when you go quiet.
Your deen stops being the part of your life you keep separate. Your ambition stops being the part you play down. They sit in the same room, in the same women, and nobody asks you to pick one.
And at some point you notice you haven't done anything alone in months. Not the hard thing you were dreading, not the good news you wanted to tell someone, not the Tuesday when you had nothing on.
It doesn't change your life in one evening. It changes who is in it, and the rest follows.
The next event is this week.
The things women ask me first.
Do I need to be fit?
Not at all. We have girls who play competitively and girls who had never held a racket before they came. You'll be fine, and honestly nobody is watching.
What happens after I join?
You'll get an email to set your password, then you complete your profile and join the WhatsApp community. Introduce yourself, don't be shy. Every Tuesday we run a welcome call for whoever joined that week, so you'll have met a few faces before your first event. And you can be at an event the same week you join.
Do I have to be Muslim?
No. Faith is how we treat each other, it isn't a requirement at the door. Wherever you are in yours, you belong here.
I don't know anyone. Will it be awkward?
Almost everyone here came on their own. That is exactly why it is the same night and the same faces every week, so by the third one you are not the new girl any more. And we will look out for you on your first.
What if I can't come every week?
Come when you can, life happens. The month has a shape so you can always pick it back up, and nobody is tracking your attendance.
Can I bring a friend?
Yes, please do. Every member gets a guest pass each month, and the monthly gathering is open to everyone anyway.
Can I come to something before I join?
Yes. The monthly gathering is open to everyone, so come to that one and see the room for yourself. Everything else is for members.
Is it only Abu Dhabi?
For now, yes. Dubai is coming, we just want to do it properly.
Can I cancel?
Yes, any time, from your profile. No phone call and no form to fill in. Your rate stays locked for as long as your membership is active.