Forbes Arabia to unveil list of 50 most powerful Arab businesswomen

[Al-khiyal]

Forbes Arabia, the Dubai-based Arabic edition of the world-renowned business and financial magazine Forbes, will unveil the first-ever listing of the 50 Most Powerful Businesswomen in the Arab world later this week, in its forthcoming issue due out on March 25, 2006.

The listing, a progression from Forbes Arabia’s list of Top 50 Leading Arab Women published in December 2004, is intended to identify the key women decision-makers and risk takers in the business fraternity of the Arab region, the women who are single-handedly responsible for advancing their organizations by promoting innovative, cutting-edge ideas and paving the way for future generations of women in the Arab countries....

Forbes Arabia to unveil list of 50 most powerful Arab businesswomen

[phylay]

No surprise the first ones come from the Gulf

[pandora]

Originally posted by phylay
No surprise the first ones come from the Gulf

Why not ? can u elaborate?

[phylay]

The power of these women comes from their money and/or the companies they manage, right?
So to be powerful they gotta hold strong positions in very big companies with established business and a broad customer list. And where do you find such companies in the arab world? definitely not in the Maghreb. U may find some in Egypt or Lebanon but the largest majority is from gulf countries.

On another hand, apart from Maha Al ghunaim who started her own business and Nahed Taher, none of the three other women is self-made.
Olayan drives a group founded in 1947 by Suliman S. Olayan.
Cheikha is cheikha
Al Gurg didn't found the Eissa El Gurg company.

Of course all must be very good at their positions otherwise their companies would have collapsed.

[Al-khiyal]

"I believe in the power of women, I believe they have the power and ability and potential to do anything they want to do."

Maha Abu-Shusheh was just five years old when she was welcomed into a world dominated by men. The eldest daughter in a religious family in the West Bank, her home was divided, according to Islamic tradition, into a section for men and a section for women and children. But as the apple of her father's eye, and the oldest in a family without sons, an exception was made for Maha.

"It was forbidden for everybody, but not for me. And [my father] was the big man in the family so nobody could argue with him, even though it wasn't acceptable . . . And I never left," said the president and general manager of Abu-Shusheh Trading Co., a Ramallah-based Peugeot dealership. "The barriers were never there for me."

Ms. Abu-Shusheh, 44, is also chairwoman of the Palestinian Shippers Council and one of Forbes Arabia's top 50 influential Arab businesswomen - the only woman from the West Bank and Gaza to make the list, at No. 49.....

A different kind of faith drives Palestinian woman's success

[nouha]

Originally posted by Al-khiyal

Maha Abu-Shusheh was just five years old when she was welcomed into a world dominated by men.

i blv it was when she was first born.. not five years