I humbly ask my readers to thank with me Doctor Nahed Taher, for without this Saudi national, the list of the top 50 women in world business would have been devoid of any Arab name. The Western media loves lists, from the top 100 world figures to the top ten chefs, and everything in between. I had a few days ago written an article about the tragedy of an Arab teenager who had been married off to the man who raped her in order to quell the scandal, and I was still receiving comments from readers who were of the same opinion as me, as rarely happens with me, being plagued with Arab opposition members, when I stumbled on the list of the top 50 businesswomen, published by the prestigious Financial Times newspaper in the form of a magazine provided with this month's 16th issue. The American Forbes magazine published a list of the top 100 most powerful women last August. Ranking first was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, second was US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and third Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. I did not care much for that list, as it reflected an American opinion that I found biased, or perhaps I was the one being biased. Indeed, the list held no Arab names, with the exception of Queen Rania, ranked 35th, and Mrs. Lubna Olayan, ranked 63rd, both of them deserving their ranks or even higher ranks yet. I nearly despaired as I held my pen and flipped through the pages of the Financial Times magazine looking for successful Arab women, but Dr. Nahed Taher, whom I found ranked 23rd, saved me. She left the National Commercial Bank (NCB) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where she held a high-ranking position, to found the Gulf One bank in Bahrain six years ago, climbing the ladder from success to greater success, with her family supporting and encouraging her. Ranking first on the top 50 list is Irene Rosenfeld, an American woman who has been heading the Kraft food and beverage company for the past five years. She paid 11.7 billion dollars last year to purchase the British company Cadbury, which had angered the English. She is also in the process of splitting Kraft into two companies before the end of 2012. Ranked second is Güler Sabanci, a Turkish woman who heads a financial and industrial services company. Her family also owns a university and a charity. Third is Indra Nooyi, an Indian woman who works in the United States and has since 2001 headed the renowned Pepsi Company. Fourth is Ursula Burns, an African-American woman who heads an electronics company my readers may have heard of, Xerox. Fifth is Andrea Jung, an American woman, whose features indicate Far Eastern descent, and who heads renowned cosmetics company Avon. Sixth is Ellen Kullman, an American woman who heads chemicals company DuPont, which was founded in 1808, and of whom Ellen is the 19th and first woman President. Seventh is Dong Mingzhu, a Chinese woman who heads the largest Chinese home air conditioning company, which equipped the stadium for last year's FIFA World Cup championship. Eighth is Angela Ahrendts, an American woman who heads the Burberry Company, which was founded in England 155 years ago and produces luxury goods. The company earned 2.4 billion dollars last year. Ninth is Yoshiko Shinohara, a Japanese woman who built her company from scratch, to become one of the largest human resources company in the world, with five thousand employees and earnings that reached 2.9 billion dollars last year. Tenth is Chanda Kochhar, who since 2008 heads ICIC, the second largest bank in India. I nearly despaired to find an Arab woman on the list, had it not been for Dr. Nahed Taher saving me. I later found that the list of fifty included many American, Chinese and Indian women, followed by women from Europe as well as Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Nigeria. I find Dr. Nahed to be the exception to the rule in the Arab World, as women in our countries are nearly never given the opportunity to succeed. I am only saying that if we were to ask any Arab man of his opinion on the situation of the Arab World, he would say that it is bad or disastrous, but he would not say that men are responsible, having ruled alone – because if he had, his words might be understood as meaning that we have not been giving our women the opportunity to manage the affairs of countries and people, as I demand. And since they will not do worse than the men, they will certainly do better. khazen@
