As a female-founded Jordanian startup on a mission to elevate Arab women in the workforce, we want to highlight how entrepreneurial women across the MENA region use their talent, tenacity, and education to build business empires.
In celebration of Mother’s Day in the Arab world (21st March), we’ve looked for businesses that make us proud to be mothers, daughters, and sisters in business, and we’ve found five women-led institutions impacting the way we work and play in the MENA region and beyond.
Today’s post is an invitation to acknowledge progress, push back the patriarchy, and appreciate the power of Arab women in business.
Mumzworld founder and CEO - Mona Ataya
Mona Ataya, a Palestinian mother of three, proved moms could have it all when she started ‘Mumzworld,’ the biggest online baby shop in the Middle East. Mona’s motherhood experiences drew her attention to a baby-shaped gap in the market, and Mona filled it with ‘Mumzworld.’ An online community that helps support and advise millions of MENA-based mothers with their baby purchases. Empowering mothers to make choices that support their children’s growth is a cause we can get behind, and it’s one reason we love this entrepreneurial venture so much.
INJAZ Egypt founder - Dina El-Mofty
INJAZ Egypt is the brainchild of Dina El-Motfy, an Egyptian entrepreneur committed to educating future generations of Egyptian students so they can realize their entrepreneurial dreams too. A non-profit organization, INJAZ Egypt, partners with businesses and educational institutes to deliver hands-on educational programming that provides financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship skills. Pushed by her father to work in the corporate world, Dina founded INJAZ because she didn’t want to follow the path she was encouraged to follow. Knowing that her heart was in community work and education, Dina took a chance. She launched a pilot version of INJAZ, which snowballed into the incredible organization it is today.
ShopGo co-founders - Lubna Taimeh & Noora Shanak
E-commerce trailblazers Lubna and Noora are homegrown Jordanian entrepreneurs who provide MENA merchants and small businesses with all the tools they need to open an online shop. ShopGo is a tech startup that’s tailored to both local and international payment gateways and logistics. And with the MENA region predicted to contribute $48 billion to e-commerce sales, it’s no surprise that ShopGo is a popular starter kit for Arab entrepreneurs finding their feet online,
Fetchr co-founder - Joy Ajlouny
Palestinian entrepreneur Joy Ajlouny is a Dubai-based woman in business who has single-handedly changed how delivery services operate in the Middle East region’s address-less wild country. As a successful Silicon-Valley-backed company operating in a tech industry where women raise less than 3% of global venture capital, Joy is fighting the good fight and representing gender equality at work and the “positive disruption” inspired by women in the workplace. Fetchr uses GPS technology to locate customers and provides courier services that connect people with all kinds of services. Joy credits her drive and ambition to her Palestinian refugee parents, who raised her in the US, where business was always a hot topic of conversation at home.
Saveco founder and CEO - Noor Al-Qatami
Women of the GCC continue to light up our daily headlines with their movement-motivating initiatives, inventions, and ideas. Kuwaiti national Noor Al-Qatami is one of these women.
As a serial entrepreneur, Noor tried her hand at a number of unsuccessful businesses before reluctantly joining her father’s business, Al Qatami Steel.
During her time working for her father, she realised how much she yearned a new challenge, and, having lived in Boston, “she noticed that supermarkets in Kuwait did not provide a good customer experience and she missed the grocery shopping experience in the US”. Instead of going back to Boston, she bought her US experience to her home country of Kuwait, and created Saveco, a mega market that offers offline convenience for all.