São Paulo – Angela Martins, Karen Jones, Maria Prado, Debora Lapa, Fernanda Balthazar. Five Brazilian women, excellent professionals in their areas, who overcame many barriers to achieve professional success, and with one thing in common: all of them work in the Arab world. They have shown that the Arab and Brazilian cultures share many similarities, especially when it comes to interpersonal relations.
To achieve good results in this market, adaptability to the local dress code and costumes, respect to each country’s culture and professional assertiveness were common points among all of women interviewed. ANBA features a bit of the experiences of each one of them, demystifying some concepts about the Arab world and showing what it’s like to be a woman and work in this market.
“It is much more challenging to achieve the post of director in a bank in Brazil than to walk across the Arab countries,” said Angela Martins, chief representative and country manager for Latin America at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and named one of the 500 Most Influential People in the World in Islamic Finance.
Martins has been working in the international sector for 30 years, and it was in the late 1990s that she became the first Christian woman to visit an Islamic bank in Saudi Arabia, the Al Rajhi Bank, in Riyadh. She has been to 72 countries, thirteen of them Arab, and specialized in Islamic finances, and says she fell in love with the culture. “It takes some time to win them over, but I have built true friendships and I really like to work with Arabs,” she pointed out.
According to her, to work in the international business sector is always a challenge in any part of the world, with each country being unique. “Japan, for instance, is a lot more challenging [than in the Arab countries]”, she said. To her, travelling professionals are seeking business and the must adapt without questioning the culture of each country. “I won’t kiss an Englishman in the cheeks, for instance, since this is not a habit of theirs, and following this reasoning, I won’t walk around Saudi Arabia in a miniskirt,” she said. “Freedom is relative, subjective, it depends on an individual’s concept of it.”
Married and the mother of three children, she believes that women should not break away from feminine roles to conquer their space in a professional environment. “I don’t think it’s ideal for the woman to masculinize herself. I would never give up my family,” she said, mentioning that the support of her husband in raising their children was crucial to her professional achievements.
On the similarities with Brazil, Martins said that “they are very much like us, they also struggle with prejudice from the world, which doesn’t distinguish one country from the other, as is the case here.” “Despite all of them being Arabs, the countries are very different among themselves. These are millennial cultures and we have a lot to learn from them. We just have to pay attention and get rid of prejudice, and we will have an opportunity to get to know a people with a wonderful cultural diversity,” she concluded.
“We have to work twice as much and in heels,” said Karen Jones, chief executive officer of the office for the Middle East and North Africa of the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil), who has lived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the last 15 years. The executive also lived for a year in Oman, when she kickstarted her project to have an international family with her British husband. They have two children, aged 14 and 16.
Jones said that the experience of living in Oman was “more at a local level, more intense, more Arab.” She said she had more opportunities for contact with the local citizens and that, despite the large cultural contrast, it was a pleasant surprise. “Dubai, in turn, is more cosmopolitan, with more opportunities,” she assessed.
Among the Arab countries, the executive has already visited Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Bahrain and Qatar, plus the UAE and Oman, and she acknowledged that this is not the easiest region in the world to work as a woman. “It is challenging for anyone and, being a woman, there’s an extra challenge. It requires more preparation, courage and availability, even more so if you’re in a leadership position, but it’s possible,” she said.
“Once you get to know the codes and are acknowledged as the company’s spokesperson – and these initial obstacles have been overcome –, it’s a place that values people that go after results, whoever they are,” she said. To her, Saudi Arabia, in particular, poses an extra challenge, since the abaya (a type of black robe worn above the clothing) is required and, in many places, the veil. With Arab culture, the executive said she learned to dress in a more modest way and to avoid public displays of affection.
According to her, Brazil’s machismo can be even worse, since it is verbalized more. “Without a doubt, being a woman requires a different posture and confidence. Living here (in Dubai), you need to learn the local cultural codes and have to be very well prepared professionally to feel confident, since we won’t always get the same attention given to a man,” she said.
Karen said that “of Arab women, a certain behavior is expected, an adherence to the rules,” and that “you have to be very careful with your criticism since, within these roles, women are very active in society, valued and respected, plus very intelligent.” To her, “the Arab countries are going through an interesting process of assimilating women into the workforce.”
Jones said that there’s a lot in common between Arabs and Brazilians. “They have much empathy, they value family, hospitality, they like to talk and share,” and she said that she was warmly welcomed. “It’s beautiful to discover and experience this up close. Their values are very similar to ours. People confuse religion with culture, and it’s actually not like that,” she said.
“It’s hard to be a woman on the labor market in Brazil and throughout the world,” said Maria Prado, a trader with FAME, a Brazilian electric shower and water heater manufacturer. The company exports to 40 countries, among them Sudan and the UAE, and already sold to Egypt and Jordan. Prado has been with the company for 15 years and visited some Arab countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and the UAE, taking part in trade shows and B2B events.
During the construction industry expo Big 5, in Dubai, Prado said that she faced a challenging situation. “Dealing with the Saudis, I couldn’t make eye contact and it was very uncomfortable, since I could not use all of my sales techniques that I learned throughout my professional career with them,” she said. Prado said that it’s important to be extra careful in dressing more conservatively and formally when dealing with any culture within foreign trade.
Despite the challenges, the trader said she was very well respected in Dubai, and that she had exceptional experiences in Algeria and Morocco. “My best experiences were in North Africa. In Sudan, for instance, it was surprisingly positive,” she said. She visited the country to attend the Khartoum International Fair, a multi-sector trade expo. To her, being a woman and working with exports is challenging in any country, no matter the culture.
“In Brazil, there really is a gap between wages and positions in the companies. There are many positions that women are still not able to reach,” said Debora Lapa, exporting manager at Alibra, a Brazilian manufacturer of inputs for the food products and beverage industry which exports to nearly 20 countries, among them Mauritania and Saudi Arabia.
During her trip to Mauritania, Lapa said that she had to adapt to the local culture, wearing discreet clothes and, in some places, the veil. Despite the differences, the manager said that the businessmen are very open to being introduced to the products and that they seek competitive prices, like to bargain and negotiate as equals with her. “I went alone as representative of the company, so they had to talk to me, but if I was with a male colleague, maybe they wouldn’t have paid attention to me,” she assumed.
Lapa sent a message to women that wish to work with foreign trade and Arab countries. “Don’t stop yourselves from working in these markets, because we are respected and being a woman is not a deterrent to doing business. Doing a good job and having competitive prices, that’s what matters,” she said.
“The women’s issue, sincerely, stands regardless of culture, because the situation is as serious in Brazil as it is in the Arab countries. You don’t have to leave the country,” said Fernanda Balthazar, an international business executive at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. Balthazar has been working in the Arab Chamber for the last 4 years and already visited nine Arab countries, where she said she was always welcomed.
She tries not to draw attention and to always be neutral, adapting to the local dress code and habits. For the executive, the Maghreb and Gulf countries and cultures are very different among themselves. “In the Maghreb (North Africa), there’s a very strong influence from European culture, especially in Morocco and Algeria,” she said. “In these countries, there’s a greater acceptance of Westerners. The impact is not so strong, I think it’s a lot easier to handle. Meanwhile, in the Gulf region, I think there are big differences in the roles of each group. You can tell who is local and who is not. The roles are very well defined,” she assessed.
Balthazar visited Saudi Arabia with the Brazilian delegation during the Summit of South American-Arab Countries (ASPA) in 2015 and said that it was the “craziest experience” she ever had in her life. “It was very interesting, but in the end it was awkward, since everything is so restricted and closed off,” she revealed. “Despite everything, they respected me, talked to me, and I would go back there on a business trip with no second thoughts.”
Within the Gulf, the image that the UAE conveys is very different from their Saudi neighbors. “In the UAE there are lots of foreigners and everybody coexists with respect, each with their own culture, I think it’s very healthy,” she said. Balthazar highlighted the fact that these countries had not begun to open up until very recently. “The Arab countries are ancient and were always closed off. The process of opening up to new cultures is just beginning,” and she said that the movement for gender equality in the labor market is part of this process. “I feel very pleased when I go there and see women leading delegations, organizations, associations and doing a great job,” she said.
After getting to know Arab culture, the executive demystified the stereotypes of what is learned in Brazil about Arabs and realized that, actually, these cultural barriers are not real. “It’s very interesting. You see that it’s no bogeyman. Things work out nicely. You are able to do your job. I have never had any problems,” she said. “It was a very pleasant experience to get to know very different places, to hear a language that you don’t understand, and it was a great cultural impact in the positive sense,” she concluded.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
