Middle Eastern women have long faced discrimination but are now making progress in various areas of society. Women are entering the workforce and starting their own businesses in greater numbers in countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. They are also pursuing higher education and entering fields that were previously closed to them like the military, construction, and engineering. Some countries have had women serve as ministers or vice presidents, and the UAE appointed a woman as Minister of Economy, signaling growing women's rights and opportunities in the Middle East. However, Saudi Arabia still maintains strict segregation and limits women's employment choices.

1. in the Middle East

3. Middle Eastern women have long suffered
discrimination and inequalities in employment

4.  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/is

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11. Saudi Arabia UAE
More 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/workingwomen

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

13.  Politics
 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

14.  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.