You're Beat by the Middle East

(February 7, 2014)

Throughout the world, the share of female internet entrepreneurs is 10%, but in the Middle East that number jumps to 35%. This is the highest rate in the entire world!

So the BBC Arabic did a segment where they interviewed women technology students and business owners throughout the Middle East. The over-riding consensus is that this unexpected turn of events is great for breaking down stereotypes regarding the poor, pitiable, helpless Arab woman (some of which I indulge in myself!)

These statistics were released by a company - that is, a firm - called Startup Compass.

This scene is from a technology college in the United Arab Emirates. Yes, all you see are male students at first, but that's just because the men/women are separated. The other side of the room is female, and in fact, the female tech students out-number the men.

 Even the instructor is female!

This is what the college grounds look like:

I can't tell if the columns are Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian; or maybe there are column types that are not Greek. 

This student says: I think tech work is really good work for women.

This lady says that they really support their female students. There's even scholarships:

And it's not just internet-based fields, but all sorts of engineering matters, such as this lady studying robots:

They said this robot is supposed to help kids with 'tawahid'. I'm not sure what that means. It might have something to do with loneliness or unity.

In the US, for sure, there's sometimes a bit of a slant against girls studying hard sciences, but this lady was saying that experience is completely opposite in the Middle East. There's no unspoken rule that women should not be engineers:

 Nice chalkboard whirls, by the way!

To be sure, there's other limitations placed against women working, but science and technology are preferred because they are seen as safe, flexible fields. When it comes to internet-based firms, the fact that you can work at home is an advantage.

There was a competition in the Middle East crowning the best new internet business, or something along those lines, and a girl called Lulu won it. I think they said she was 14!

Look at the gracious male losers congratulating her. I'll be jiggered!

These two women run an internet firm. I think they said most of their employees were women, and I think they said their female workers were better than the males (obviously), and they definitely said that a Saudi woman was working as a consultant or adviser for them, remotely.

And a final picture of everyone chilling in the start-up center. If I had not context, I'd think this was in the US somewhere.