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Lebanese women entrepreneurs push for success

The Lebanese League for Women in Business is launching projects encouraging women to open their own businesses.
Mayrig.jpg

BEIRUT — In Lebanon, women count for 3.1% of the deputies in parliament compared to 22% on average elsewhere in the world. Meanwhile, Lebanese parliamentarians refused to pass in June a quota guaranteeing that women must represent 30% of decision-making positions in politics. In this context, succeeding professionally as a Lebanese woman is challenging. But some incentives and business organizations are pushing potential candidates to try and launch their own businesses in this sexist climate.

Aline Kamakian, the owner of Mayrig, an Armenian restaurant in Beirut, began selling life insurance policies at age 18, after her father died. “I faced a lot of sexual harassment, because at that time a woman selling stuff was considered selling herself,” Kamakian told Al-Monitor. “But I overcame my frustrations and succeeded. In 2003, I opened my father’s dream restaurant, Mayrig.”

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