In an initiative that would benefit several Qatari and French women in the months to come, Women’s Day dawned to terrific bonhomie and great promise at the residence of the ambassador of France to Qatar, Eric Chevallier, on Tuesday afternoon.
As the ambassador launched the programme Bridging Qatari and French Women to Empower Qatari Women’s Professional Career, on the befitting occasion of Women’s Day, the first Qatari-French networking programme under the patronage of Aysha al-Mudahka, CEO of Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC) – a leading business incubator in the Mena region – it was a moment of great excitement among the dozens of women gathered at the event.
The programme is aimed at creating bonds between Qatari and French women and encouraging Qatari women to develop professional initiatives as well across various sectors of activity.
Chevallier, in his elaborate and poignant speech, said, “Celebrating the International Women’s Day is special for me because it means celebrating the values I believe in; freedom, dignity and equal rights. Those values are above all universal and therefore, should also be applied to gender. As I see it, celebrating Women’s Day is not opposing woman against man but is celebrating humankind, as a whole.”
Quoting Stendhal, a 19th-century French writer, ‘Equal rights for men and women would double the strength of mankind’, the ambassador pointed out that this is particularly true in Qatar, where women are a driving force towards a knowledge-based economy. “This is why women must be praised and encouraged,” Chevallier explained, “The French Embassy is willing to contribute to this effort by launching this programme. The aim is to create, to strengthen and to keep alive a network of active Qatari and French women in order to facilitate the emergence of initiatives.”
To start with, in September, the French embassy will launch a call for projects for all Qatari women, in all disciplines. “Three projects that must be achievable within six months, will be selected by a Qatari-French committee and the laureates announced on Women’s Day of 2017,” Chevallier said, “The laureates will partner with a French woman and, together, they will develop the project. We will create bonds between Qatari and French women by twinning the laureates with French women who will work with them to develop the project, from logistics to administrative or legal matters, from research to networking. If needed, French will also help and reach out to potential partners and sponsors.”
Interestingly, the audience gathered at the event comprised French women from business, art, sciences, and from different sections of the embassy; culture, education, science, economics, and press, who had already committed to the programme. Chevallier then went on to illustrate his point with three “potential examples”: a project about business development, a project concerning professional training, and a project consisting of a sport challenge.
Explaining each of the three instances, Chevallier said, “Let’s say that a Qatari woman wants to bring a French brand in Qatar. Then we might suggest brands and we will help her finding contacts and go through legal matters to achieve the project.” In the second example, Chevallier explained how a Qatari woman wishing to get into a French company for an internship together with her twin French partner, will work together to determine the most suitable company, and the partner will facilitate the contact and will ensure a proper follow up of the internship.
As for the third example of a project consisting of a sport challenge, the ambassador shared: “Imagine that a group of Qatari women wants to join a sport event, a competition. We will help them with registration and visas, finding sponsors if needed, as well as with all logistical matters.” Chevallier further added, “I hope this programme will be a success, and my wish is to make it recurrent, and, ask Qatari women to reciprocally support French women projects. The purpose of this gathering is to have your inputs, to raise questions and to bring about discussion so that, in the aftermath, this programme is yours.”
After outlining the highlights, the ambassador threw open the discussion for the ladies to analyse the value of the idea and how to improve it, but not before expressing his gratitude to al-Mudahka, who accepted to patron this programme.
Al-Mudahka said, “I am truly honoured to be part of this noble initiative, and to represent the Qatari women who have made great achievements thanks to the support and vision of our government and leaders. We, at QBIC, support female entrepreneurs, and strive to provide them with a comfortable environment to help them realise their dreams of having their own startup businesses. At QBIC, we have already incubated some very successful startups, founded and run by Qatari women. Some of these businesses are S’ishira, Namoona, HZ, and Faroula.”
Al-Mudahka further added, “The French embassy has been a great supporter of women in Qatar, and this programme represents only one of the many milestone initiatives they regularly provide for the women of our community, and we look forward to being part of this journey.”