Daleela's Nour Emam On Reframing Women’s Health In The MENA

Nour Emam, co-founder and CEO of the Cairo-based femtech startup Daleela by Motherbeing, never set out to educate women about their bodies—but after having her daughter, it was clear to her that that was precisely the path she wanted to pursue.

“My journey into femtech wasn’t a straight line, but it was deeply intentional,” she tells Inc. Arabia. “I started out as an electronic music producer and hold a master’s degree in sound art from Goldsmiths, University of London. I spent years performing in major clubs across Europe, and on the surface, things were going really well. But everything changed when I became pregnant. I was performing until 38 weeks, but once I had my daughter, I felt a deep need for purpose—something bigger than me. That’s when I discovered a passion for women’s health. I was shocked at how little we’re taught about our bodies, and I threw myself into learning. I used all my savings to train remotely as a certified full-spectrum doula, and that experience opened my eyes to the gaps, the stigma, and the silence surrounding women’s health—especially in our region.”

This is how Emam began sharing the knowledge she had learned with other women online, and the response, she says, was overwhelming. Armed with the knowledge of what women should know and how that could impact their lives, in 2020, she launched Motherbeing, a digital platform to educate and empower Arab women. “Women were desperate for safe, accurate, shame-free information in a language and tone that respected them,” Emam says. “That’s how Motherbeing was born: as a platform to bridge that massive gap.”

Today, the platform, having expanded its offerings and rebranded as Daleela by Motherbeing, acts as an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, culturally aware health companion for women across the MENA region, providing instant answers in their local dialects as well as doctor-backed diagnostics. “What Daleela (an Arabic word that means “guide”) did was refine and scale the original vision of Motherbeing: to educate, empower, and de-stigmatize women’s health in the region,” Emam says. “But it also went further—it solved for accessibility, affordability, and shame, especially for women who may not have access to a doctor or feel comfortable speaking to one. Today, Daleela serves over 150,000 users across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and beyond— and we’ve reached over 3.2 million women through our content.” 

When Emam ventured into the world of femtech, she found countless other challenges that come with speaking openly about topics like periods, sex, fertility, and vaginal health. “We faced backlash, censorship, and resistance—not just from platforms, but sometimes from institutions and even collaborators,” she reveals. “There was also the funding gap: femtech isn’t yet fully understood or taken seriously by many investors in the region.” Another issue, she tells us, was dealing with the frequent ethical dilemmas that cropped up on their journey. “We’ve had to constantly balance cultural sensitivity with medical accuracy,” Emam explains. “How do you talk about consent, pleasure, or birth control in a way that empowers women, without triggering cultural backlash that could jeopardize the whole mission? These aren’t easy questions, but we take them seriously. We work closely with medical professionals, local experts, and community feedback to make sure we’re doing right by our users—not just technically, but ethically.”

A scene from Daleela's Women’s Health Summit in Egypt. Image courtesy Daleela.

So, how did Emam navigate such challenges? By “being unapologetically honest, culturally sensitive, and medically rigorous,” she replies. “We leaned into education and built trust over time. And we didn’t compromise on tone—we spoke directly to women, not over them, or around them.” One of the biggest surprises, however, has been the extent to which Daleela has become the first line of care for women rather than a supplementary one. Emam tells us that for many users, it is their only access point for urgent questions about women’s health.

“Women come to Daleela with deeply personal, often urgent questions— about infections, missed periods, pregnancy scares, unexplained pain—because they don’t feel safe, comfortable, or able to ask a doctor,” Emam shares. “We were also surprised by how much trust users place in the AI-chat and diagnostics—and how essential it is that we speak their exact dialect, not just formal Arabic. These insights pushed us to prioritize accuracy, cultural nuance, and safety in everything we build.”

Daleela has thus now chosen to focus its roadmap on deepening its AI-powered chat capabilities in Arabic dialects, expanding its diagnostics for more conditions, and making it easier to access doctor-reviewed advice and prescriptions. And for this, she credits Daleela’s community for pushing the platform to evolve its offerings to better serve them. “In short, our users shaped Daleela into more than a tool—they made it into a lifeline, and that changed how we think about our responsibility to them.”

Having already been operating for five years, it wasn’t until the team staged their first Women’s Health Summit at the end of May in Egypt that they met their community face-to-face, and according to Emam, the event marks a turning point for the company. “We’ve always engaged with our users digitally, but seeing hundreds of women show up in person—to learn, ask questions, and connect—brought our mission to life in a whole new way,” she says. “It reminded us that the demand for judgment-free, culturally-aware women’s health education isn’t just strong—it’s urgent.”

“What struck me most was how many women said things like ‘I’ve never been to an event like this before,’ or ‘This made me feel like I’m not alone,’” Emam continues. “That kind of feedback made one thing very clear: this can’t be a oneoff. It solidified our decision to host a Daleela summit annually, and to establish it as the region’s leading women’s health summit—the first of its kind, and a space that bridges medical expertise with real, open conversations. We see it as a cornerstone of our mission—one that will shape the future of how women’s health is discussed, understood, and prioritized in our region.”

Meanwhile, the Daleela team also has plans to scale its impact by expanding its presence in Saudi Arabia and the GCC, and continuing to “break the barriers around access, language, and stigma in women’s health,” as well as to roll out “one of the most requested features: a bilingual period and fertility tracker built specifically for Arab women.” As for Emam, her journey as an entrepreneur continues to be influenced by her early career as a music producer. In fact, she tells us the lessons she learned from music still resonate today as she forges her path in femtech. “It might sound like a leap from music to femtech, but both worlds taught me how to listen, connect, and create experiences that move people—one through sound, and the other through impact,” Emam concludes. 

Pictured in the lead image is the co-founder and CEO of the Cairo-based femtech startup Daleela by Motherbeing, Nour Emam. Courtesy of Motherbeing. 

This article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of Inc. Arabia magazine. To read the full issue online, click here.