As The MENA Marks International Women’s Day Amid Regional Volatility, Here's The Case For More Leadership Through A Female Lens

Celebrated on March 8 each year, International Women's Day offers an opportunity to reflect on the evolving role of women in leadership across business, policy, and society. This year, for those of us in the MENA, that reflection comes at a time when the region at large is navigating a period of geopolitical volatility.

But it is precisely in moments like these that female leadership perspectives become particularly valuable, Shaden Khallaf, Senior Director, Public Policy, Government Affairs, and Social Impact at the Dubai-based super app Careem, highlights in a conversation with Inc. Arabia marking this year’s International Women's Day. “In moments of crisis, the most valuable currency is more than data—it is a holistic perspective,” Khallaf says. “Research from the Harvard Business Review shows that women are rated more effectively in core leadership competencies during a crisis, excelling specifically in initiative, learning agility, and relationship building.”

According to Khallaf, a senior regional policy leader with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of tech, government, and humanitarian affairs, those qualities are particularly relevant when operating in a region where shifting dynamics are not the exception, but a recurring feature of the operating environment. “In the MENA, where volatility is woven into daily life, leadership cannot be a solo act,” she says. “It has to be built on collective strength. That is harder than it sounds. Crises expose where that strength is real and where it is not. They demand an awareness that stretches beyond the immediate problem, one that accounts for how a political or operational shift ripples across an entire ecosystem and the people within it.”

And that is where women have a particularly pertinent role to play, Khallaf adds, citing insights from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and broader sociological research. “Women tend to lead with higher social sensitivity,” she points out. “In practice, this functions as an early-warning system. It allows leaders to read the room before the room speaks. By anchoring decisions in data, and infusing that with relational and stakeholder trust, we build resilience that outlasts the crisis itself. We stop merely surviving, and start strengthening the bonds that allow teams and organizations to thrive once the dust settles.”

Shaden Khallaf, Senior Director, Public Policy, Government Affairs, and Social Impact, Careem. Image supplied.

However, Khallaf notes that stepping into leadership during turbulent times can come with an added layer of scrutiny for women. “There is an undeniable ‘visibility tax’ for women in leadership during a crisis,” Khallaf says. “The margin for perceived error is narrower. The pressure is not just to succeed. It is the weight of knowing that your performance will be read as a referendum on every woman who comes after you.” From Khallaf’s point of view, such imbalances are symptoms of a broader systemic gap. “The solution is not simply more women in leadership, though that matters,” she says. “It is about changing the conditions that create that pressure in the first place. The referendum only exists when you are the only one in the room. The real work is building a leadership ecosystem where that is no longer the case, moving beyond mentorship into active sponsorship, putting your credibility behind other high-performing women, and creating the conditions for them to advance.”

Against such a backdrop, Khallaf suggests that the question for female leaders currently navigating such dynamics is not whether uncertainty can be avoided, but how it can be approached. “My advice is to shift from being reactive to being anticipatory,” Khallaf explains. “We have to embrace ambiguity, prepare for it, and navigate through it. It is tempting to wait for the fog to lift, but it rarely does. The most effective leaders do not respond to uncertainty; they are ahead of it.”

Here, it’s worth noting that Khallaf, who previously held senior roles at entities like the United Nations and Meta, is a recognized expert in navigating complex regulatory landscapes and driving digital transformation across the MENA region with a gender-sensitive lens. “In this region, we are at a historic intersection of digital transformation and social evolution, while navigating serious geopolitical challenges at the same time,” Khallaf points out. “The regional instability of the past week has been a sobering indication of that, with widespread implications of volatility. Rather than waiting for the perfect moment to act, I’ve found that a scenario-based approach is most effective and allows us to be prepared for any situation. I learned this when working around conflict zones and contingency planning for possible refugee and population displacement movements from a given country, but the framework applies to most situations, in business, and in life.”

Khallaf’s ethos has certainly informed the manner in which Careem has been operating through the current crisis in the region. Indeed, she shares that the company has been able to prioritize safety while safeguarding business continuity and service to the community through an elaborate web of close coordination with government authorities, operational readiness, and real-time communication channels with partners, captains, and customers. But Khallaf also notes that the lessons drawn from moments like these extend far beyond the operational realities of any single organization in the region.

“Ultimately, leading through uncertainty in the Middle East is about more than holding a steady line; it is about having the courage to redraw it as needed,” Khallaf says. “Women leaders are not just participants in this region’s transformation; we have to more meaningfully be its architects. When the landscape shifts, real authority in a crisis comes from a simple realization: we cannot wait for the world to become stable to lead—we have to lead, so that the world can become more stable.”