Once a year Arabian Business releases a list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Arab Women” and every year I go through the list and find all the Kuwait based women and list them on the blog. Last year the list was the smallest since I started keeping track of it with only 5 women making the list and 2013 had the highest number with 11 women making the list. This year things have improved slightly with 7 women making the list including a few new comers like Noor Al Qatami, the owner of SaveCo. Shaikha Al Bahar is also back on top as the most powerful Kuwaiti woman after losing that spot last year to Maali Alasousi, who went from 25th most powerful Arabi women to no longer being on the list. Here are the most powerful women in Kuwait for 2016:
48- Shaikha Al Bahar (-27)
56- Maha Al Ghunaim (-5)
74- Sara Akbar (+20)
76- Eaman Al Roudhan (New)
83- Elham Yousry Mahfouz (New)
89- Noor Al Qatami (New)
94- Rasha Al Roumi (-48)
Note: The (-) is how many spots they dropped from the previous year, (+) is how many spots they’ve moved up and (New) means they weren’t on the list last year.
For the full list of most powerful Arab women, click [Here]
Update: Changed the post title to reflect the fact not all the powerful women in Kuwait are Kuwaiti.
12 replies on “The Most Powerful Women in Kuwait- 2016”
What up Mona Eltahawy!
I wish they would define what they mean by powerful, is it rich? Influential thinkers? Policy makers? The only thing the Kuwaiti women on the list have in common is they are rich and hail from prominent families. Very few would know of their existence if it wasn’t for this list. Fewer would know of this list if it wasn’t for Mark.
Not all of them come from prominent families. Some did do a lot.
Well, if you took a look at the actual list on the Arabian Business page you’ll see their list of accomplishments and Bio which is presumably the reason why the got on the list.
Some were there for their accomplishments in Business and Finance, others for innovations in fields of energy, telecom and so on.
Not only is your comment probably offensive to the women and their families but i think it is offensive to all of us Kuwaiti women in general. Really when the whole community is pushing towards Women Empowerment this is what you decide to pull of? – maybe you should learn a little bit of general knowledge first not all of them are from prominent or even rich families. They are rated on their industries:
Shaikha Al-Bahar is head of the number 1 bank in the region. all the thousands of employees know her and so do all the companies that deal with Nbk and their clients.
Maha Al Ghunaim is head of one of Global Investment, if you do not know the company maybe you should google it. Again All of Kuwait knows her too.
Kuwait Energy’s CEO is Sara Akbar another prominent company. Leading the industry.
as you go down the list each one of these women are top in their industries in Kuwait and yes a lot of us in Kuwait who read the news know every single one. Really just because you maybe unknown does not give you a right to take away something from the Kuwaiti female community. Yes I am a a feminist and yes i am patriotic.
Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about. Mark Twain
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_patriotism.html
ig·no·ra·mus
ˌiɡnəˈrāməs,ˌiɡnəˈraməs/
noun
an ignorant or stupid person.
Elham Yousry Mahfouz is the CEO of CBK. I believe she’s Egyptian.
It seems so, Arabian Business just have her country listed as Kuwait which is why I assumed she was Kuwaiti. I’ve reworded the post title to make more sense now.
i dont understand how someone who is on the most powerful list one year fails to make it the next year. i mean #25 to not even making it on the list? and dropping down 48 spots!?!? i wonder how their power is assessed.
Most powerful as in can lift heavy weight or push carts?
For the honor of Grayskull!
I am SHE-RA!