Ladies, get out your hijab. Contrary to the Middle East’s image as a backwater for career women, some countries in the Arab world welcome female lawyers. (Other countries, not so much.) Indeed, some women in American and English firms say that working in the Middle East has catapulted their careers.
“In London, you are just another lawyer,” says Luma Saqqaf, the former global head of Linklaters’ Islamic finance practice, who worked in Dubai for more than 10 years. (She had also been a partner at Allen & Overy.) “When you’re the only woman in a room of 20 men, you get noticed.” Now an entrepreneur who also directs a nonprofit that provides business mentoring in the region, Saqqaf says her career in the Middle East has been a smooth ride: “I worked my way up from junior associate to partner. I didn’t face problems.”
