Forbes’ Middle East has just released their “achievements lists” and one of them was the 2019 “Middle East’s 30 under 30 List“.
In honor of International Women’s Day on March, 8th, we thought this would be a great opportunity to celebrate the incredible Arab women who honored us all by making it to that prestigious list.
Because, yes, it’s a big deal!
1. AYA & MOUNAZ ABDEL RAOUF
The 27 and 28-year-old Egyptian sisters, Aya and Mounaz are the founders of the iconic fashion brand “Okhtein“. Their luxurious handmade leather goods have been known internationally for their cutting-edge designs and unique sense of artistry. Aya and Mounaz are also known for supporting Egyptian talents and craftsmanship through collaborating with several Egyptian artists on their products.
2. NOUF ALSALEEM
21-year-old Saudi Nouf Alsaleem has managed to launch her own business, “Mathaqi” at the age of 19. Mathaqi is a homemade food delivery application that operates in Saudi Arabia. In the two-years Mathaqi has been operating, it has gained great popularity among Saudi Arabians and won Nouf several entrepreneurship awards in and out of KSA.
3. NADIA MASRI
Syrian\Ukrainian 28-year-old Nadia is the founder of market research mobile app Persky. Nadia, who lives in the U.S.A, has also been featured in several other respected platforms for her innovation and entrepreneurship. Nadia launched her application in 2018, and in that short time has managed to grab the attention and collaborate with several mega companies worldwide. Other than being featured on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, of course.
4. NEDAL AHMED
25-year-old senior copywriter Nedal Ahmed is a true pride and representation to Arab women everywhere. She was born in Libya to Sudanese parents, and lived in both Egypt and Yemen. That was before she moved to the United States at the age of 11. For her very young age, she has had some seriously impressive accomplishments. Aside from her work on Emmy-winning talk show “The Talk”, Nedal has been knocking walls down, left and right. She worked on the Procter & Gamble ad which shed a light on racism, and the anti-smoking campaign for CVS which was applauded by Michelle Obama herself, to name a few.
5. BALQEES
30-year-old Emirati\Yemini singer Balquees Fathy has been chosen by Forbes as the most influential personality in the music category. Although Balquees’s career is considerably short, she managed to make a difference and a name for herself in the Arab music world. Balquees has released two albums of her own, in addition to participating in the first female-only concert in Saudi Arabia last December, which was quite the milestone for Arab women in general.
6. BASMA ALOTAIBI
Saudi-Arabian singer, Basma Alotaibi has dazzled people all over the world not just in the Arab world by both her astounding talent and very young age. Basma is an 18-year-old singer with a powerful operatic voice who lives in the United States. She began her singing career at the age of 16 and has managed to earn a strong follower base all over the world through the music she releases on both YouTube and iTunes.
7. AMENI MANSOURI
30-year-old biomedical engineer Tunisian Ameni Mansouri is the Co-founder & CEO of online marketplace Dabchy. Dabchy is a localized fashion marketplace where women can earn money by selling their clothing online and save money by buying other items at discount prices. Ameni, along with her two co-founders has managed, in one year, to expand their originally Tunisian business in Morocco and Algeria. She is also aiming and planning to make it the leading fashion marketplace in the entire MENA region.
Talk about reaching for the stars!
8. AUDREY NAKAD
Audrey Nakad is a 27-year old Lebanese\Canadian social entrepreneur who created a business to help struggling students everywhere; Synkers. Synkers is a mobile application that connects students to highly qualified tutors on the spot. It operates in three simple steps: a student searches for the course, picks a tutor based on his or her preferences and directly books a session on the app. Audrey always speaks that she was inspired to create Synkers after witnessing how big of an impact a tutor has on their student’s academic career when she was tutoring herself. So she wanted to make sure no student misses out on that impact.
9. NOUR EL SHERBINI
Our very own Egyptian Squash champion Nour El Sherbini has made it to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list and we can’t think of anyone more deserving of this honor. Not only is Nour a three times World Champion in Squash, she is also the youngest woman to win the Women’s World Championship. And to add to the list of reasons to be proud of this magnificent young woman, she was also just named the champion of the 2019 J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions.
10. SADEEM ALMARRI
23-year-old product analysist Sadeem Almarri is breaking barriers in the biotechnology field at a very young age. She created a 3D printed robotic hand that translates Arabic texts entered in a mobile application into sign language. This invention is set to act as a communication means for deaf people and will also help to teach sign language. Naturally, Sadeem went on to win very prestigious awards for this amazing invention.
These 10 amazing women are the only Arab women who made it to this year’s 30 under 30 Forbes list. And in honor of this year’s International Women’s Day, we’d like to thank them for all their hard work to represent Arab women everywhere.
We also hope next year more women get inspired to conquer their fields and break all the barriers ahead of them to make it to the top too.
Happy Women’s Day, Ladies!
