Last month, I spoke at a conference for women business owners in Cairo, Egypt.  The gathering was hosted by Vital Voices Global Partnership and the Middle East and North Africa Businesswomen’s Network (MENA).  Here’s the back story:

Vital Voices, a non-profit organization, grew out of the U.S. government's successful Vital Voices Democracy Initiative. Then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, established it in 1997 after Mrs. Clinton’s tour de force appearance at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.  Our own Nell Merlino ran communications for the US delegation in Beijing. The delegation’s mission was to promote the advancement of women as a U.S. foreign policy goal, and it’s still a priority for now Secretary of State Clinton.  

A hallmark of Vital Voices has been the conferences it convenes, bringing together thousands of emerging women leaders in over 80 countries.  This Cairo conference was one of them.  

I was deeply curious about the women entrepreneurs I would meet in Egypt. Would their business issues be similar to those of their American counterparts?  How much does culture and religion impact them and their enterprises?  More specifically, what effect does wearing the veil have on their interactions with clients, vendors and other businesspeople, particularly men? 

In the late 70s, I embarked on a quest to understand more about my people’s past prior to slavery in the Americas. Part of that quest led me to my Moorish ancestry, and to the religion of Islam.  My identification with my diasporic heritage compelled me to embrace the tenets of the religion in worship, dietary practices and dress.  I’ll admit, it was a struggle for me to submit to the role of women in Islam, as least as it was interpreted by the men around me.   I felt smart, ambitious, independent and a leader in my own right.  It seemed as though I had to relinquish all of that in order to exhibit the proper submission of a Muslim woman.   However,  I dressed according to generally accepted Quranic dress code, keeping my head, arms and legs covered at all times for several years.  And in that I discovered I received a measure of respect and privacy in public that I had not had in mini-skirts and halter tops.

It was my work in television news, among other reasons, that prompted me to return to Western dress.  After all, I’d never seen any American newscasters in hijab or a turban. 

So this was the basis of my curiosity about the veiled business women I met in Cairo.  It was professional and very personal.   What I discovered was that not all women in Cairo wear their heads covered, and those who do, do so for different reasons. I also discovered that as distant I felt to them was as distant some of them felt to each other.

Some women are covered because of their religious beliefs.  It is with humility and spiritual commitment that they take to the veil. This can take the form of a simple decorative scarf on their heads, two scarves of complimentary colors, an all black outfit with only face and hands exposed, or a shroud-like covering with a slit for the eyes. Some are covered because of family expectations and custom, as when a young woman marries into a family that requests or demands she wear the veil. I was told that some even do so as a fad.   Those who are Coptic Christian do not wear their heads covered.



Courtesy of Isisara Bey

The conference allowed the women, veiled and not, to chance a more intimate exchange with the “other” and to learn that they could overcome the judgments each side might have had for the other.  It was touching to hear them admit to me and to each other that they’d feared being judged for their appearance, and that being in the group of conferees helped them open their eyes, lower their guard and cast off their assumptions.   They learned many things that day, about business and about themselves.  Most of all they and I learned that whether covered head to foot, just heads, or not at all, they shared two things--a passion for their enterprises, and a deep commitment to developing themselves and their country.