????謝赫?魯卜娜畢業于加州州立大學奇科分校(Cal State Chico)，自詡為電腦極客，她從鳳毛麟角的女軟件設計師做起，推動了迪拜港務局（Dubai Port Authority）的現代化進程，最終升遷至阿拉伯聯合酋長國首位女性內閣部長。她描述了這一奮斗歷程中的無數不眠之夜與難熬的不安全感，并向全神貫注的聽眾們建議說，恐懼乃是強有力的動力來源：“正是它推動我不斷向前走。”

????這位魅力出眾的外貿部長很容易被誤當成收費高昂的美國勵志演講家。可是，臺下如饑似渴地消化她每一句話的女士們大多來自中東阿拉伯國家。在那里，失敗被視為恥辱，而分享自己的恐懼更是聞所未聞的事。女性在這方面更是承受了雙倍的壓力，以至于中東女性的創業率在全球墊底。

????上周末在迪拜出席首屆中東與北非商界女性網絡（MENA Businesswomen's Network）論壇并致辭的魯卜娜與其他一些人士攜手，致力于用人脈、融資、指導乃至與陌生人座談，分享個人經歷過的挫折等商業語言來推動女性的權利。如果她們最終獲得成功，它將是該地區暴風驟雨般的政治革命掩蓋下一場靜悄悄的經濟革命。中東政治革命對女性的影響目前尚不清楚。

????華盛頓公益組織關鍵聲音（Vital Voices）總裁阿麗瑟?尼爾森強調：“將焦點轉移到經濟議題上之后，商界女性能夠更好地推動變革。” 關鍵聲音過去五年來一直致力于促成中東與北非商界女性網絡。這個聯盟由500多家新企業中的2,500位商界女性共同組成。

????魯卜娜的全名為謝赫?魯卜娜?賓特?卡哈立德?阿爾?卡西米，除她之外，該地區的領袖們也開始重視這項事業，最突出的代表是在美國接受過教育、熱衷駕駛吉普車的沙特阿拉伯公主阿米拉?阿爾-塔維爾。沙特禁止女性駕車，要求她們在隔離的設施中工作，且直到最近才允許她們在地方選舉中享受選舉權與被選舉權。

????沒人會低估這項事業面臨的挑戰。該地區成年女性中只有28%從事經濟活動，比例世界最低，而其中絕大多數又聚集在低級別的崗位。根據世界銀行（the World Bank）的統計，中東與北非的全部14個經濟體中都存在區別對待男女的規則，而且該地區的公司中也只有17.4%聘請了高級經理人。美國非政府組織自由之家（Freedom House）認為原因在于“傳統文化認為女性能力欠缺、理性不足且更適合做家務工作。”

????對那些想在家族生意之外運營企業的女士來說，文化偏見的壓力尤其巨大。（一份調查顯示，該地區女性為主要所有人的公司只占13%，不足世界平均水平的一半。）埃及企業家謝仁?阿拉姆指出：“通常家庭對女性持保護態度，不愿意讓你拋頭露面，承受市場力量的沖擊。” 阿拉姆運營著一家旨在促進女性職業發展的組織。

????上周有逾兩百位女高管和企業家匯聚一堂，聆聽魯卜娜和其他演講者就如何對抗上述偏見所發表的高論，她們所處的行業從制造到數碼服務無所不包。她們正在利比亞和黎巴嫩、阿聯酋和埃及、摩洛哥和突尼斯等總共十個國家（不包括以色列）構建網絡“樞紐”。

????Sheikha Lubna, self-described computer geek and Cal State Chico grad, describes the sleepless nights, and piercing insecurities, as she rose from lonely female software designer to Dubai Port Authority modernizer to the United Arab Emirates' first woman cabinet minister. Fear, she counsels a rapt audience, is a powerful motivator: "It's what pushed me further."

????The charismatic trade minister could be mistaken for a high-paid American motivational speaker. But the women hanging onto her every word are mostly from the Arab Middle East, where failure is a stigma -- and sharing your fear of it an alien language. That goes double for women here, whose entrepreneurship rates are the world's lowest.

????Lubna, who spoke at the inaugural forum of the MENA Businesswomen's Network here in Dubai late last week, is part of a small cohort determined to advance women's rights by talking the language of business: Networking, accessing capital, mentoring, and even sharing personal setbacks with a room full of strangers. If they succeed, it will be a quiet economic evolution that takes place in the shadow of the region's stormy political revolutions, where it's unclear how women will fare.

????"By shifting to the focus to economic issues, business women will be positioned to better push for reform," insists Alyse Nelson, president of Vital Voices, the Washington group that has spent the past five years helping build the MENA BWN, a network of 2,500 businesswomen that has spawned some 500 new enterprises.

????In addition to Lubna (whose full name is Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi) , other leaders in the region are taking up the cause, most prominently the Jeep-driving, American-educated Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel of Saudia Arabia. Saudi Arabia prohibits women from driving; they must also work in segregated facilities, and were only recently granted the right to vote and run in municipal elections.

????No one underestimates the challenge. Only about 28% of the adult female population is economically active -- the lowest in the world -- and most of those women are concentrated in low-level positions. According to the World Bank, different rules for men and women exist in all 14 economies in the Middle East and North Africa, and only 17.4% of firms in the region employ a high-level manager. Freedom House cites "cultural perceptions that women are less capable, more irrational, and better suited for domestic responsibilities."

????The cultural bias is especially hard for women who want to run an enterprise outside the family business. (One survey found women as principal owners in just 13% of firms, less than half the world average.) "Usually families are protective of women. They don't want you to be exposed, to take the brunt of the market forces," says Egyptian entrepreneur Shereen Allam, who also runs an association to foster female professional development.

????As executives and owners of businesses ranging from manufacturing to digital services, the more than two hundred women who gathered here last week to hear from Lubna and others push against that tide. They are building network "hubs" in Libya and Lebanon, the Emirates and Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia -- 10 countries in all (Israel is not part of the network).