IWD: How MENA Can Empower More Girls in STEM to Build a Smarter Future

Girls in STEM are redefining the future, but their journey is anything but easy. Fatima had always been fascinated by the stars. As a child in Riyadh, she would sneak onto the rooftop at night, tracing constellations with her fingers, wondering what lay beyond the sky. Her father encouraged her curiosity, bringing home books about astronomy, but outside her home, things were different. Teachers told her science wasn’t a natural path for girls. Relatives asked why she wasn’t focusing on something “easier,” something “more suitable.” By the time she was ready for university, she had to fight, not just for a seat in an engineering program but for the right to dream beyond the limits society had set for her.

Fatima’s story is not unique. Girls in STEM across the Middle East and North Africa face similar challenges, setting their sights on careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, only to be met with invisible roadblocks.