Sales and catering from home also have their role to play. The Direct Selling Association recently revealed that 40 per cent of Saudi women are working from home, with fields such as catering at the forefront. Fashion designer Basma Moawad designs and displays her creations at home, while Wasma Bakr and Lulua Asaad resell unique vintage fashion items from Europe as a side business, conducting their marketing through Facebook. Meanwhile, the owner of Home Bakery, Heba Mandoura, recently started baking from home. All have saved on rental, bureaucracy and social pressure.
The traditional society of Qatar has also promoted a new scheme – set up by the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQatar) no less and Qatar Telecom (Qtel) recently – to empower women who want to work from home. There are also government efforts to spread this idea to three of Qatar’s major employment sectors – civil service, health and energy.
In the UAE, a law to allow women to work at home has been in force for several years, launched by Watani, the national identity programme. While the UAE is considerably more tolerant of women working in public posts and outside their homes, working from home has seen a rise due to traffic problems and the savings to be made on rental space and has been encouraged by online communication. That said, while professional women such as management consultants and journalists are working increasingly from home, there is another, more traditional and 'sustainable-friendly' side to jobs women can do in The Arab world. In a bid to revive local heritage, one UAE company called Palm Tree has resurrected the manufacture of homemade items such as traditional food coverings known as mughta, the round fan or meshab and simple dresses with embroidery such as the mukhawar or talley.
This culture of revival has reached Oman too. Founded by Badriya Al Siyabi who was inspired by women's community groups in the US, the Sidab Women's Sewing Group embroiders traditional 'wizar' art on cushions, bags and other items. The 35-or-so women get to take their work home with them, creating more opportunities for the fairer sex and legitimising the work-from-home ethic in this part of the Arab world. From professional consultancy to knitting, women are rediscovering themselves and asserting their right to work, contributing to a more robust, creative society across Arabia. Arab women are now more than ever in their ascendency.
