in the Middle East

Middle Eastern women have long suffered discrimination and inequalities in employment

Today, Muslim women are exercising economic and other prerogatives, moving ahead in personal and professional ways that would have been totally improbable a half century ago. Women of all social classes are moving into the labor force, into schools and universities and into the mosques, banks and courts. Scores of academic books, articles and conferences held in the Western world testify to this progress.http://www.crescentlife.com/thisthat/feminist%20muslims/islamic_feminism_finds_a_different_voice.htm

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Saudi Arabia UAEMore women are entering the workforce and starting their own businesses.

Significant Improvements: Women currently run about 16,390 businesses.

International business

Rise in women-owned business.

Opportunities for foreign investment in women-centered services or offering legal services.

Women are in the army and have much more say in deciding their careers.Women-owned business has grown over the years and are 1.7 times more productive than those run by men.

Major B2B trading sites is run by a woman.

Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, who runs Tejari.com, is also Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates; a huge step forward for all women in Middle East.

Women can work alongside men meaning more career choices for them. Entering male-dominated fields like construction and engineering.Entertainment business, a difficult choice in an Islamic society.International business: An appointment of a woman as the Minister of Economy is evidence that the nation is being proactive in the area of women’s rights.    http://internationalbusiness.suite101.com/article.cfm/workingwomeninmiddleeast

Women have served as ministers in the Syrian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Iraqi, and Tunisian governments, and as Vice President in Iran.

Polit ics Women in Iran were granted right to vote in 1963.[32] They were first

admitted to Iranian universities in 1937.[33] Since then, several women have held high-ranking posts in the government or parliament. Before the 1979 revolution several women were appointed ministers or ambassadors. Farrokhroo Parsa, was the first woman to be appointed Minister of Education in 1968 and Mahnaz Afkhami was appointed Minister for Women's Affairs in 1976.

Muslims in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Turkey have all been led by women.

Israel, a woman (Golda Meir) once headed the government, although the political elite has been almost exclusively of males since the creation of the state. http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol5/v5n30women.html

 Bangladesh was the first country in the world to have a female head-of-state follow another which includes Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina [3]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_feminism

Saudi Arabia - of the most sexist and oppressive states in the region◦ The society is slowly accepting women in the workplace, although

women cannot be engineers or work alongside men except in a hospital…

◦ Segregation & discrimination is everywhere, and women have very limited choices in employment. With more women graduating from universities and eager to work, there is signs of progress.