Indian Women in Business in the Gulf Region, Veiled Assets?
摘要
The expatriate population is dominant in the six countries of Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, which comprise the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Yet, the larger public has only a partial understanding of the diversity within. Smaller still is the gaze that women receive as one group among this migrant population. Or, it is a limited one, primarily on the victims of abuse as domestic workers or of trafficking. During the fieldwork for my pre- and doctoral research, which primarily focused on the Indian expatriate community, a few random cases of female entrepreneurs that I encountered sparked my curiosity. More than a decade later, there is scant mention of them in the literature. Is the presence of expatriate women in business indeed insignificant in the Arab-Gulf region? What is the scope of their participation? The chapter explores the question to address the continued lacunae on the topic.