Muslim Women In Business

“I was born in Konya, Turkey in 1976. I studied Business and Theology at university. After graduation, I worked in different companies, both Turkish and international. When I had my children I stopped working and I devoted myself to raising them. In 2007, I started my first business, Şahhane Restaurant in Ankara. One of the biggest motives behind starting the restaurant is the fact that I wanted a non-alcoholic place for conservative people where they could have a good time with their family accompanied with live music. I personally thought there was a need for such a place, after a while we had to change our concept since the demand was low. Now we're serving in a hall where people hold ceremonies like weddings and graduations. After becoming successful, we opened another branch again in Ankara. In addition to my restaurants, I'm also managing a gas station which was left to me from my dad. I wasn't wearing the hijab before 2007, that’s the same year I turned back t...

“My name is Omaima El Haouass. I’m a 23 year old self-made entrepreneur. I am the owner and founder of offduty.cut. I was born and raised in a small village called Palafrugell in the Costa Brava, Spain. I grew up in a very quiet environment up until I was 12 when I then moved to London. I went from a small Mediterranean village of about 20 thousand people, to the biggest city in Europe. Unlike the majority, I did not go to University and get a degree. Nowadays there are many other ways to achieve your goals. I went to a Business academy up until I was 17 years old and then decided to get hands on by going straight to work. I took on an apprenticeship in business administration, management and operations whilst working as an office manager at a structural engineering consultancy practice. Once qualified, I started pursuing other career interests like law enforcement and policing and this is the field I currently work in. I also love fashion and I'm a strong believer that dres...

"My name is Şeyma. I graduated from Industrial Design with an honors degree. After graduation I started working on an industrial estate as a designer. After working there a couple of months I started to question my life choices in general. It was a tough environment and I was spending very long days working with men I didn’t know. I was very unhappy. I decided to quit my job, and I enrolled at a Quran memorization course for a year. I didn't have any intention to go back to that kind of working environment. I prayed and prayed for a job that would be good for me. One day, I came across a bakery account (based in Korea) on Instagram, with picture of all kids of cakes and desserts decorated with beautiful flowers made by cream. I fell in love. I always wanted to study Gastronomy in University but neither my family nor our education system allowed it. When I saw them pretty cakes on Instagram, I just wanted to go for it. I worked as an apprentice at a florist for 4 months....

"My name is Tabassum Wyne and I am a Canadian Muslim cookbook author/food blogger & entrepreneur. My professional experience is in the accounting field but I am currently raising my two toddlers, who are 2 and 3 years old while being a stay at home mom at the moment. Being a stay at home mom is both a blessing and a challenge but alhumdullilah, it has allowed me to pursue my passions, like writing my first cookbook ' One Perfect Ramadan ' and my second eBook about dessert is coming out soon! I love food, eating and cooking and most of all sharing the passion of teaching others how to cook and love food too, in a healthy way. I started my first business T-Wyne Galleries in 2008 after I finished university. I made acrylic paintings and sold them. It was fun and more like a hobby. Shortly after (like 2 months after lol) I started working full time and occasionally painted. I started instagram.com/kashmirifoodie  soon after I got married in 2012 and only posted occas...

“I am a social worker turned social entrepreneur. An avid reader and basketball player. Co-founder and COO of LaunchGood. Launchgood is a crowdfunding platform to support Muslims launching good all over the world by helping them raise funds for their projects, campaigns, and creative ideas. I used to be a youth organizer and I would often raise funds for youth programs. At some point, I realized with my co-founder Chris and Omar that there are 1.6 billion Muslims and over 400 niche crowdfunding sites but very few that focused on the Muslim community. Post college, I was feeling a bit burned out in the Muslim community, but I felt recharged when I explored the possibility of LaunchGood. It felt like we're so busy defending who Muslims, LaunchGood to me was the freedom to just build and inspire Muslims to aim higher, create, innovate, and launch amazing projects. So we set out to build the site and October 2015 we launched our first ever project: the first Muslim Womens' wo...

"My name is Sena. I'm a 20 year old with dreams. Seyyar Dukkan is a second-hand clothing brand. I built my studio with wooden sticks and a ladder on my terrace. My family and friends didn't take it seriously till I started to get attention. As always, some people weren’t into it, to them second hand clothing is second hand and just low. Something to be ashamed of. Talking to those kind of people weren't easy, especially with social media. But social media also worked to my benefit. Seyyar Dukkan was a small step, taken by a small girl (me!) When she noticed she had more clothes than she needs, she understood that things needed to change. This mindset led her into minimalism and Seyyar Dukkan was born. I realized that less was actually more, I started to ask friends around me how important clothes were to them. Is it a shirt you need or is it 'that shirt' you need? "A gorgeous skirt which I really like, but don't need, can't take me to a ci...

“My name is Meryem Demirbaş. When I couldn't complete my Quran memorization, I wanted to find a new hobby, something to get busy with. I was always interested in design and sewing. I was sketching bags and dresses all the time so I decided to register for a sewing course to go further. The course was awesome and I haven’t stopped sewing since. At the start, I tailored clothing pieces for people around me, mostly for family members. They loved the clothes I made, and they always encouraged me to purse this full time. Back then, I didn't want to take it full time as I was already sewing for my daughters and relatives and that was enough. But then I got into bags and never looked back since. I knew, that this was something I could do full time. Each bag I create is very special to me. It’s a magical feeling when I see customers carrying my bags that I spent hours making. Money isn't the reward for me. Because no money could buy my time and effort, but customer satisfacti...

“My name is Sümeyra Teymur. I graduated from Ankara University with a degree in Theology. I then did my masters at Marmara University and my PhD at İstanbul University. When I finished with school, I continued working in the digital publishing sector, where I was working at, part-time, as a student. I worked in different positions on Haberler.com. Now, I'm the CEO. I also started a textile brand called QRAS. We produce dresses for women who love social life and take an active role in it. We're selling in both domestic and international markets. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always had something to do, I keep myself busy. I love working and constantly improving myself. I’ve attended various seminars and conferences in different countries. The reason I tell you this, is because my entrepreneurship journey began while I was doing all these things. Learning, seeing, and improving myself. I’ve been working in the digital publishing sector for 12 years now. You have to know a...

“My name is Zeynep Tunç. I'm a mother of a 4 year old daughter and she really is a big part of my success. I’ve been making hair accessories for babies, children and grown-ups since 2017. I actually started in 2011 with my interest in ribbon embroidery. I made my first hair accessory that year. I made some pieces for my niece while I was still working in my sales and marketing job at that time. When I got pregnant, I decided to take a break from work and I made hair accessories for orpan children. After I had my daughter I started to make hair accessories for each outfit. I watched tutorials in a language I didn't know and learned it by trial and error. After a while, my accessories started to get attention, people were interested. In 2017 I opened my "Minminik Dükkan" Instagram page. All those photography classes finally came in use. The toughest part of this job was the fact that I didn't have a budget to start with. I was purchasing materials, turning th...