Word: arabs
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...Arabia, there have been female-only banks for decades - a reflection partly of Saudi women's wealth, partly of conservative attitudes toward them as precious creatures who need to be protected. But the past few years have seen women's banks and investment companies proliferate across the Middle East. Arab women, increasingly well educated and common in the workplace, are seeking financial independence. In the Gulf, flush with wealth from the oil and gas boom, they are looking to invest in more sophisticated vehicles than the traditional stashes for women's assets: banks and property. The Kuwait Stock Exchange...
...result, bankers and money managers - not traditionally associated with feminist causes - are helping to power the region's slow-burn gender revolution. Investment firms like Merrill Lynch and private banks like the Swiss firm Clariden Leu have targeted Gulf millionairesses, some flying advisers out for teach-ins. Arab banks have also homed in on working women, issuing them credit cards and loans for cars and apartments...
...Saudi Arabia, women own about a third of brokerage accounts and 40% of family-run firms, albeit often as silent partners. A 2007 study by the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, found that a third of women-owned enterprises in the United Arab Emirates generated over $100,000 a year, versus only 13% of American women-owned firms. Yet few Arab businesswomen could raise capital from banks, usually turning to friends and family instead...
...from being the pampered, disenfranchised creatures of media legend, Arab women are increasingly savvy about finance. Last year, a Barclays Wealth survey found that Arab women are the world's most confident about investing in funds, and the most secure in their knowledge of estate and retirement planning...
...Arab woman investor has a long history. The Prophet Muhammad met his first wife, a wealthy Meccan trader, when she hired him to take caravans to Syria. When the Gulf's economy relied on pearls and fish, not gas and oil, absent men often left women in charge of their business affairs. Today, many Gulf women have lots of liquid assets, partly because of Muslim inheritance law. Shari'a dictates that a married woman's wealth is her own; spending on her household is her husband's responsibility...