International Women’s Day: Facebook group reveals Arab women’s hunger for business support

Fida Taher set up the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1649031041791087/">Women in Business Arabia</a> Facebook group on January 26 this year. Salah Malkawi for The National

A Facebook group set up for women in business across the Arab world has attracted more than 20,000 followers in its first six weeks.

Since the Jordanian businesswoman Fida Taher set up Women in Business Arabia on January 26, a total of 20,521 women by 4pm yesterday from across the Middle East and beyond had joined the group with at some points more than 1,000 members a day joining up.

Speaking ahead of International Women’s Day today, Ms Taher, who founded Arabic digital recipe platform Atbaki and Arabic cooking website Zaytouneh, said that the phenomenal growth of the group demonstrated the need women in the Middle East have for professional support.

“Obviously there is a real hunger for women to connect and lobby and learn from each other,” Ms Taher said.

“When I started this Facebook group I was actually thinking of around 100 or 200 women to share knowledge and share interesting articles about business, to learn from each other and help each other. And then it picked up massively. It started increasing with about 1,000 members every day.”

“There are small updates every day. I get daily messages from members who are saying that this group is opening doors and opportunities for them,” she said.

The group has already held networking sessions in Dubai, Amman and Abu Dhabi and is planning meetings in cities as far apart as Beirut and Istanbul. It has also allowed women across the region to showcase hundreds of small businesses and to share information about changes to women’s rights legislation across the region.

A steering group of influential women is looking at ways it can mobilise its huge membership to provide better opportunities and support for its members, Ms Taher said. These include mentorship, business investment or other forms of practical help and advice for their careers.

“We’re creating chapters in different Arab countries and those chapters have committees for events and committees for mentorship,” Ms Taher said. “So I think even if some sort of value is added to the professional lives of just 5 per cent or 10 per cent of the women in the group at the moment, then this is good.”

“What we’re doing now as a first step is that we’re collecting the biographies of everyone. Within a few weeks we’re going to have bios of thousands of women published in some sort of a simple template divided into groups for locations and other groups for industry,” Ms Taher said. “It will make it a bit easier for women to find each other. Maybe at a later stage, with a platform, it will be easier to find a specific person that you’re looking for in an industry in that country in that city.”

Organisers say that the forum is open to all Arab women in business or women who have an affiliation with the Arab world.

“This space has definitely grown way past our expectations,” said Lilian Abou Zeki, a business designer from Beirut who helped Ms Taher create the group. “The space is geared towards creating a women’s lobby where we as Arab women in business take control in shaping our narrative instead of sitting back and waiting to be empowered. We can forge connections among ourselves and build the bridges we need ourselves.”

Organisers say that they hope to complement many other women’s business initiatives and microfinance projects set up by governments across the Middle East.

“I joined this group because I am interested in seeing other people’s professional and entrepreneurial successes,” said Navine Eldesouki, an entrepreneur based in the UAE who joined the group last month. “The group is helping me. I have posted and received beneficial responses. It also inspires me and gives me ideas. I think there is a big movement at the moment towards women’s empowerment.”

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