The stereotypical outlook for a western regarding Muslim women residing in the Muslim world is very blunt and awkward. It is often projected as suppressed individually and socially. The only perception that arises in the mind of the westerner is a Burkha clad women, over dressed from head to toe and rarely educated and thoroughly humiliated by Men in the so called male dominated society where men are often projected as male chauvinists. This is to a greater extend correct when one happens to see the biased images projected by the western media, especially when they link the cruel and Pseudo Islamic practices being followed by Taliban in Afghanistan to the entire Islamic world.
Greet Hofsted in his work o cultural dimensions have tried to have a broad view of various culture of the globe and his study on cultural dimensions especially on concept of masculinity puts a clear light on the type of society the Arab or the Islamic world has related to the position of women in their society. When the cultural Dimension related to Masculinity is compared between US and Arab world the results are disturbing. It indicted 70 points to Arab world and nearly 50 points to US on a 100 point rating scale.
The irony lies in the fact that there are very few influential and powerful in the western world when compared to the Middle East and Islamic world. The only problem is that the influential and powerful Business women, sports women and female politicians of the Muslim world are rarely projected by the Western media and seldom is known about them to the rest of the world. This fact can be substantiated by a simple knowledge that USA till date did not have even a single women president , with great difficulty we seen Ms. Hillary Clinton by using her husbands influence came to power and is still expecting to become the president one day. Where as there are many women presidents and heads of states in Muslim countries, for instance Ms. Megawati Sukahno putri of Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, population wise was the head of the third largest world democracy. Late Benzir Bhutto of Pakistan, Sheik Hasina and Khalida Zia of Bangladesh etc are some examples.
There are certainly barriers to communication at international level and these barriers are mostly cultural and perceptual, as Islam is being mostly projected as backward and unscientific or non compatible with the west or Democracy and women in Muslim countries are projected as very oppressed.
To begin with we need to look at certain facts and figures about the Muslim women and then try to understand the Spirit of Entrepreneurship among Women in Islamic world.
The Muslim world Demographics:
The Islamic world is spread across all the inhabited continents, it is a known fact that Islamic is a majority religion in MENA(Middle east, North Africa) region apart from central Asian(part of former Soviet Republic) and south east Asian, however the spread of Islam in USA and other western countries cannot be ignored.
Indonesia is the most populated Muslim country and the fourth largest populated country in the world. India has the third largest number of followers of this faith; it has a traditional bondage with west Asia and historic ties which makes it even more close to the Islamic world than the west. Perhaps India should consider being a member of OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference), the biggest Global organization after UNO with nearly 60 member countries, as it can have more political and Economic leverage in International Business domain.
The latest report which has come out from the Pew forum for religion and Public life, shows the demographics of the Islamic world indicates that there is a population boob in the countries in which Islam is practiced as a major as well as minority religion.
While Muslims are found on all five inhabited continents, more than 60% of the global Muslim
Population is in Asia and about 20% is in the Middle East and North Africa. However, the Middle
East-North Africa region has the highest percentage of Muslim-majority countries. Indeed, more than half of the 20 countries and territories1 in that region have populations that are approximately 95% Muslim or greater.
More than 300 million Muslims, or one-fifth of the world’s Muslim population, live in countries
where Islam is not the majority religion. These minority Muslim populations are often quite
large. India, for example, has the third-largest population of Muslims worldwide. China has more
Muslims than Syria, while Russia is home to more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined.
Of the total Muslim population, 10-13% is Shia Muslims and 87-90% is Sunni Muslims.
MUSLIM POPULATION BY REGION:
| Region | Estimated 2009 Muslim Population | Percentage of Population that is Muslim | Percentage of World Muslim Population |
| Asia-Pacific | 972,537,000 | 24.1% | 61.9% |
| Middle East-North Africa | 315,322,000 | 91.2 | 20.1 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 240,632,000 | 30.1 | 15.3 |
| Europe | 38,112,000 | 5.2 | 2.4 |
| Americas | 4,596,000 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| World Total | 1,571,198,000 | 23 | 100.0 |
Living as Majorities and Minorities
While 80% of the world’s Muslims live in countries where Muslims are in the majority, significant
numbers – about one-fifth of the world’s Muslim population – live as religious minorities in their
home countries. Of the roughly 317 million Muslims living as minorities, about 240 million – about
three-quarters – live in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million),
Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million). Two of the 10 countries with the largest number of
Muslims living as minorities are in Europe: Russia (16 million) and Germany (4 million).
These minority populations are often quite large.
For example, as mentioned earlier, India, a Hindu-majority country, has the third-largest population of Muslims worldwide. The Muslim population of Ethiopia is about as large as that of Afghanistan. China has more Muslims than Syria (an Arab country); Russia is home to more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined; and Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon.
The above figures clearly indicate that there is a huge market for Islamic Banking and Financial Services in non majority Muslim country like India for Islamic Finance as the many non Muslim countries today have more population (10.3% of entire Muslim population) of Muslims than many Islamic nations.
COUNTRIES WITH THE LARGEST NUMBER OF MUSLIMS LIVING AS MINORITIES:
| Country | Estimated 2009 Muslim Population | Percentage of Population that is Muslim | Percentage of World Muslim Population |
| India | 160,945,000 | 13.4% | 10.3% |
| Ethiopia | 28,063,000 | 33.9 | 1.8 |
| China | 21,667,000 | 1.6 | 1.4 |
| Russia | 16,482,000 | 11.7 | 1.0 |
| Tanzania | 13,218,000 | 30.2 | 0.8 |
| Ivory Coast | 7,745,000 | 36.7 | 0.5 |
| Mozambique | 5,224,000 | 22.8 | 0.3 |
Women Entrepreneurship in Muslim World:
After getting a brief idea about the Muslim World, now if we try to concentrate on the conditions of women living in these countries, especially with regards to the spirit of Entrepreneurship and risk bearing capacity among these women and also considering the level of empowerment of these women the following information to some extend gives us the over all view of women in Islamic world:
An Article “From CEOs to Chicken Vendors “published by Shahnaz Taplin-Chinoyin in Arab World newspaper puts a light on the condition of Women Entrepreneurs in Arab Countries. Across the Arab world — Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt, women from CEOs to chicken vendors shoot for the moon. But they also share something in common with women in other regions; it is often socio-economic realities, not religion or culture, which dictates similar work choices and patterns for women globally. Globally, economic realities require under-privileged women to work. Middle-class, educated women can afford the choice to work or stay home and raise their kids, while affluent women — be they Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu — have a plethora of options. With no choice about working, they hover at the two-dollar-a-day, third-world poverty line. Though their economic roles are often influenced by the global economy, their specific strategies still retain their traditional religious or cultural business ethics.
It is often socio-economic realities, not religion or culture, which dictate similar work choices and patterns for women globally. Islamic values and the fear of God guide major Muslim Woman’s business decisions, keeping them happy with modest returns and minimal profits.
Necessity has turned these Muslim women into micro-financed entrepreneurs. But as widows and divorcees, they are responsible for their children. Women opt to work due to family hardships. Someone in the family falls ill or dies, and they end up having to come to the financial rescue.
Not all women face this struggle on the margins. In Syria, Palestine, and Jordan, more than half the college graduates are women. The Syrian women patronizing the spa, and the Jordanian clientele of the beauty salon fit a different model — educated, middle-class, often university graduates who prefer to be housewives after marriage.
On the West Bank of Palestine, however, highly educated women become sole breadwinners for a different reason. Many of them have lost fathers, brothers, and husbands to jail or to the Intifada, or their husbands cannot get jobs because of the new restrictions on entry into Jerusalem.
And then there are well-educated, privileged women who have choices wherever they reside. Many have taken the business to continue the family name, not so much for money.
The irony is that Women entrepreneurs in the Arab world do face male hostility—often from the West, rather than Muslim men.
Remarkably, the economic roles and choices of women in the Arab world seemed very similar to those in the United States and followed familiar global patterns. Working-class or poor women have tougher lives and most must work. Where many men are in jail or face violent death, women pick up the slack. Educated middle-class women can choose to work or not. Everywhere, affluent women can do as they please.
Problems or Barriers commonly encountered:
The problem is that the progress of gender equality and equal rights is at best piecemeal and not enshrined in law. The irony of course is that many of these rights are enshrined in the Shariah. There are still a large number of barriers to entry for Saudi women in the workplace. Never mind the underlying conservatism of Saudi (male) society. In the field of business, industry and investment, very often Saudi women entrepreneurs are at a huge disadvantage compared with their cousins in Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE.
In the latter countries it takes an hour to register a company, whether male or female. In the Kingdom it could easily take several months. Businesswomen such as Hana Al-Zuhair, manager of the Businesswomen's Center at the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EPCCI), lament the fact that there are no statistics on the number of industries owned and managed by women. Very often a factory can be owned by a woman as a silent partner, but it is actually managed by a man.
The EPCCI is setting the pace by working through a women's industry committee to collect data and conduct studies on the opportunities available for women. The aim is to educate and encourage Saudi women to invest in industry, and to leverage recent reforms in government regulations such as easier industrial registration procedures, financing and free plots of land to establish a factory in the industrial cities. At the same time, government officials and bureaucrats are very often themselves ignorant about the new regulations. Women entrepreneurs are often told that there are no relevant forms for women or that it is not permitted for women to invest in a particular industry.
Saudi businesswomen stress that in spite of the regulations, the government reforms, and Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority's endeavors to encourage women into business; it remains difficult for them to overcome the barriers. Despite promises of change from the Ministry of Commerce, nothing substantial has materialized.
The registration process for companies is the same for both men and women investors. The only additional regulation imposed on women managers in industrial cities is to have all-women staff in a designated women's section with separate entry and exit doors; and a male supervisor for the male staff in the men's section. Naturally, this is a problem for businesswomen.
Nevertheless, the economic power of women in the Kingdom cannot be understated. Women own 10 percent of real estate, especially in major cities such as Jeddah and Riyadh, and 30 percent of brokerage accounts in the Kingdom. They own some 40 percent of the family-run companies, very often as silent partners. Saudi women as a whole own estimated cash funds of SR45 billion, of which 75 percent is sitting idle in bank deposits.
According to a recent study by the Khadija bint Khuwailid Businesswomen's Center at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (JCCI), investment by Saudi businesswomen has reached some SR8 billion, which is around 21 percent of the total investment. Women "own" some 1,500 companies - about 4 percent of the total registered businesses in the Kingdom. There are 5,500 commercial registrations of women's projects, representing 20 percent of businesses in the retail, contracting, wholesale and transferable industries sectors.
The business case for the greater and equal involvement of women in the Saudi economy is proven. Saudi women tend to outperform Saudi men in education; the arts; science; and if they are given the chance in business and industry they might do so here as well.
Women are contributing to GDP in several ways - their liquidity and deposits in banks; their investment in industry; and generating employment. But they could do much more if only the playing field was level.
Their financial clout and the reforms that have seen a greater role for women in the Saudi economy in the last few years have hitherto failed to reconcile the incidence of massive hidden female unemployment in the Kingdom.
That means there is a large untapped financial resource in the Kingdom that could, with the right incentives, regulations and facilities, contribute to the country's economic development in a range of sectors and also reduce unemployment. According to official statistics, only 5.5 percent of an estimated 4.7 million Saudi women of working age are actually employed.
To leverage this, stress many Saudi entrepreneurs, there has to be a change of mindset especially regarding de-segregation of Saudi society, including the workplace. The employment of women in the Kingdom is further skewed by the fact that there is high adult male unemployment in the economy.
As such women are seen by some Saudi men as rivals in the job market. Saudi businesswomen are sanguine about this. "Equal opportunities and the empowerment of women is and will happen. There is no way out of it. We are just like any other society; like any other women that have to struggle for change. This change will inevitably be driven by economic necessity," stresses one businesswoman.
The consensus among Saudi businesswomen is that change will be gradual, although economic and demographic necessity could speed up reforms. Rapid economic development in the last two decades has had an impact. The Kingdom is witnessing a boom which is even bigger than in the 1970s after the first oil price rise.
The empowerment of Saudi businesswomen is getting support from various quarters. Recently, Britain for instance, through its Global Opportunities Fund, allocated SR700, 000 to finance the training of Saudi women in business development and management through a series of workshops in Madinah, Jeddah, Abha and Hail. Women, for instance, have stood for - and won - elections to chambers of commerce in the Kingdom's major cities; and they have been promised participation in municipal elections next time round. The bad news is that there is still a long way to go in terms of social and legal reforms for Saudi women to attain their rightful and equal status in Saudi society.
However, even in Saudi Arabia the socio-political anomalies are apparent especially where the private sector is concerned. Lubna Olayan, the Saudi businesswoman ranked 97th in the Forbes list, is the CEO of Olayan Financing albeit the company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of her father's Olayan Group, one of the Kingdom's most prominent private family business groups.
"We live in a male-only society," emphasizes Samra Al-Kuwaiz. "This male-only society," she maintains, "is now viewing women as a possible economic force. Saudi Arabia is a special case. We are very different from other GCC countries. We have complete segregation. We have, let's say Islamic challenges, which are more evident in the Kingdom. Of course, we abide by Shariah one hundred percent."
Influential Business Women from Muslim World:
After understanding how the spirit of Entrepreneurship is being reflected among the Women in Islamic Countries lets consider certain examples:
· Lubna Olayan, Chief executive, Olayan Financing, Kingom of Saudi Arabia
· Sheikha Hanadi Nasser bin Khalid Al-Thani, Founder & Chairperson, Amwal, Qatar
· Sheikha al-Bahar
· Dr. Mona Al Bahar, Assistant Professor, United Arab Emirates University
· Datin Hjh Edah Bte Hj Mohd Noor
· Country: BruneiShe is the President of Women's Council of Negara Brunei Darussalam, a national body which aims to represent all the women of Brunei.
She is also the secretary-general of Asian Council of Women's Organizations.
· Dr. Maha Hussain, Hematologist / Oncologist - Ann Arbor, Michigan
· Ms. Fatima Obaid Al Jaber, Assistant Undersecretary, Abu Dhabi Municipality
· Maryam Sharaf, Group Chief Financial Officer, Dubai World
· Salma Ali Saif Bin Hareb, Chief Executive Officer - Jafza & Economic Zones World
· Maha al-Ghunaim, Global Investment House
· Donna Sultan, Chief Executive Officer, KEO International Consultants
· Nahed Taher,Founder and Chief Executive, Gulf One Investment Bank Saudi Arabia
· Raja al-Gurg Raja Al-Gurg
· President of the Dubai and UAE Businesswomen's Council, CEO of the Eissa Al-Gurg Group
· Nabilah Al-Tunisi,Saudi Aramco
· Hind Hariri, Age: 24 Country: Lebanon The second-youngest billionaire in the world
· Begumhan Dogan Faralyali, Dogan Holding president. Age: 31 Country: Turkey
Serra Sabanci, publicly traded conglomerate Haci Omer Sabanci Holding ($7.7 billion market cap
· Hanzade Dogan Boyner Age: 36 Country: Turkey she launched Dogan Online,
which became Turkey's largest service provider. She remains chairwoman there and is also deputy chairman of Dogan Newspaper
· Vuslat Dogan Sabanci chief executive of large-circulation daily Hurriyet.Age: 37 Country: Turkey
· Dinara Kulibaeva Age: 40 Country: Kazakhstan owns shares in Halyk, Kazakhstan's third-largest bank, which went public in 2006
· Filiz Sahenk Age: 41 Country: Turkey
· The fashionista sister of fellow billionaire Ferit Sahenk is also an heir to
Dogus Holding fortune;
· Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag Age: 43 Country: Turkey
She has been president of Dogan TV Executive Board and a member of the Dogan Holding Board of Director
The above mentioned list represents only a minute number of Muslim Women who are Business Tycoons; there are tens of thousands of Women in Islamic world who display the spirit of Entrepreneurship.
Historically Islam has give rights and privileges to women and has empowered them by property right and special matrimonial rights. One of the famous and Muslim Woman Entrepreneurs was Khadijha (R.A), the wife of Prophet Mohammed (P.U.H). She was the famous and wealthy trader of Mecca. Other powerful women such as Fatima Zohra(R.A), the daughter of Prophet Mohammed, Razia Sultana of India etc are famous in Islamic History.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that looking beyond a narrow view or having a stereotypical attitude regarding the status of Women entrepreneurship in Muslim world, the truth is many women are being empowered and are taking up challenging roles and are ready to bear the risk of carrying out a business of their own in the Islamic world. The diverse Islamic world has different economic realities and the women in these diverse cultured countries are greatly influenced by the status of economy of the country to which they belong.
Some women turn to become entrepreneurs out of their interest and others have no choice as it acts as a source of livelihood of their family. In spite of certain cultural and societal barriers and the misunderstood male dominated cultures, we find a great opportunity for women to enhance their spirit of entrepreneurship. However, a lots needs to be done to promote this interest, it requires certain amendments and changes to be made in the law, values, opinions and attitude of citizens not only living in Muslim countries but also the rest of the world, especially the western world which has developed a biased views regarding the role of woman and her status in Islamic world. This can be done by educational, cultural, social and technological empowerment of people living in Muslim world. Social Justice to women can be done only by recognizing and encouraging their capabilities and talent.
References and Bibliography:
· Al Isabi fi Tamyiz al Sahaba, by Ibn Hajar al Asqalani, Vol. 4.
· Mapping the global Muslim population; A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population; PEW research Center October 2009
· The rights of women in Islam, By Asgharali Engineer
· Women in Islam: the Western experience, By Anne Sofie Roald
· Islam, gender, & social change By Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, John L. Esposito
Journal Articles:
· The spirit of Islamic reform By: Arnold Trebach. Washington Times, the (DC), 03/16/2007; (AN 4KB520070316035337001)
· Islamic democracies and the West Washington Times, the (DC), 03/23/2004; (AN 4KB20040323075726)
Online sources:
· http://www.islamfortoday.com/women.html
· http://www.geert-hofstede.com/
· http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1156077737744&pagename=Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs%2FMAELayout
· Forbes.com
· Arabnews.com
· http://joe.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/17/1/59
