Tuesday March 19th, 2024
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10 Egyptians on 100 Most Powerful Arab Women List

Arabian Business' fifth annual list places 10 local heroines in their top 100, while the number one position was retained by the UAE's Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi.

Staff Writer

Arabian Business has just released their list of The 100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2015. The fifth annual list highlights the most influential women in the Arab world across a variety of divergent fields including Banking & Finance, Technology, Media, Law, Arts and Entertainment, Science, and even Armed Forces. This year, Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi retained the top spot, and coming in at a close second is Amal Clooney. This is kind of no surprise, given her sudden flurry of exposure since her marriage to George Clooney. Sure she was doing great work as a lawyer but she was largely low-profile, evidenced by the fact that this is her first time on the list.

Though women from the UAE dominated the list, a number of Egyptian women nabbed spots on it, with 10 Egyptian women in total. Not bad y’all, not bad at all! The highest ranking of them is news host Lamis El Hadidi, who comes in at number 34. The television anchor is known for being outspoken, sometimes making headlines as opposed to reporting them – just like her husband Amr Adeeb, incidentally. Other notable women on the list include number 38 Lina Attalah, the chief editor of Mada Masr, while Dr. Hend El Sherbini represents the science industry at number 49 as CEO of Integrated Diagnostics Holding, the largest private sector healthcare diagnostics service provider in Egypt.

A couple of Egyptian women based in the US are on the list such as Dalia Mogahed, prominent journalist and activist Mona Eltahawy, infamously arrested at a protest in Tahrir Square, and host of NBC’s Today Programme, Hoda Kotb. The latter comes in at 95, likely because though her face is instantly recognisable to Americans, perhaps when it comes to the Middle East itself, she doesn’t hold the same weight as say, El Hadidi, who easily commands the attention of like, 80 million people in Egypt alone.

Another entry in the science field is Ghada Amer at number 84, and freelance journalist Hanan Solayman comes in at number 80 for her work engaging citizens outside of Cairo – for instance, training journalists in Upper Egypt so that they could contribute news from that district. Unstoppable - and unageing - screen siren Yousra, lands at 88 and while legendary Muslim feminist writer Nawal El Saadawy makes the list at number 61. The latter still remains influential at the age of 83, and has been a pioneer in women’s rights for decades, particularly on the subject of FGM, even spending some time in jail for her views during Sadat’s era.

You can see the full list here