An article by Somaiah Al Dabbagh, Founder of Maeya

Starting without a playbook

Being a female founder in the MENA region often feels like showing up to a game where everyone else already knows the rules, but no one hands you the playbook. When I started my business, there was no investor writing a cheque, no advisory board, and no warm introductions. It was just me, my laptop, and a brand I believed in—trying to grow in an environment where most decision-makers and gatekeepers were men.

What surprised me most wasn’t the lack of support; it was the assumptions. People would call my brand a hobby or a side project even while I was handling manufacturing, logistics, marketing, customer care, operations, and finance on my own. I often found myself explaining that there was no hidden team. Every part of the business rested on my shoulders.

I also met people with no experience in activewear confidently explaining production to me, assuming I hadn’t spent years building and mastering these processes. The more they spoke, the clearer it became that real expertise comes from doing the work—not observing from afar.

The invisible barriers women still face

This isn’t unique to me. It’s the reality many women in the region navigate quietly. We learn to move around barriers rather than wait for them to be removed. We build communities instead of traditional networks. We rely on instinct, adaptability, and persistence in a landscape that wasn’t designed for us, even as it slowly evolves because of us.

Some obstacles remain especially persistent. Credibility is one of them. It appears subtly, through assumptions that a woman must have help or that her business is something she works on casually. Many female founders end up explaining the seriousness of their work far more often than their male peers.

Then there’s capital. Wamda data shows that women-only founding teams in MENA receive just 1.2 percent of all VC funding. That number speaks for itself. Many women start self-funded and self-taught and are forced to scale slowly because there’s no financial cushion. Every decision feels heavier. Every setback hits harder.

Structural imbalances also shape the ecosystem. Male leadership dominates investors, boardrooms, and the informal circles where opportunities originate. Women learn to negotiate more deliberately, adjust their tone depending on the room, and walk the fine line between being clear and being “too direct”—a calculation men rarely have to make.

The strengths women lean on

And yet, women across the region continue to build impressive, resilient businesses. They do it by leaning into strengths that are often overlooked.

• Adaptability

When you are self-funded, you learn quickly to stretch every dirham, solve problems creatively, and pivot fast when something isn’t working. You build progress out of what you have—not what you wish you had.

• Community

Many women build brands through genuine connection. In my case, being open about my journey—sharing wins, losses, and mistakes—built trust long before I could afford marketing or PR. Across the region, women grow their businesses by being real in an industry obsessed with looking polished.

• Attention to detail

Running a business alone forced me to understand everything: sourcing, fit testing, packaging, logistics, funnels, customer care, numbers. It wasn’t glamorous. It was exhausting. But it made me sharper. I could see problems early, fix them quickly, and make decisions with clarity because I knew how every part worked.

• Resilience

Not the glossy version you see online, but the quiet, steady resilience that keeps you going when nothing is working. Many women succeed simply because they decide not to stop.

What real progress looks like

My journey made one thing clear: women in this region are not waiting to be invited in. They’re already building, creating, and redefining industries. But individual persistence has limits. Real progress requires an ecosystem that sees women as core contributors, not exceptions.

That means accessible capital.

It means sharing industry knowledge instead of gatekeeping it.

It means taking women-led businesses seriously from the beginning—not after years of proving themselves.

The region’s economic future is directly tied to how effectively we support the women already leading.

Female founders in MENA have achieved a lot with limited resources. Imagine what they could build with genuine support, visible representation, and structures designed for them rather than around them.

The goal is simple: a business environment where women don’t have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously and where their success is expected—not surprising.