Morocco: Sana Afouaiz, committed to women’s financial empowerment

At 27, Sana Afouaiz is a very young active Moroccan women’s rights activist. In 2016, at the age of 22, she founded Womenpreneur Initiative, a network of 13,000 women entrepreneurs in 20 countries. She is also the author of the book “Invisible women in the Middle East” published in 2018. Since 2019, the young Moroccan woman is also an advisor for the United Nations on gender issues. 

Sana Afouaiz spent her childhood in the south of Morocco, in Agadir, an environment that made her aware of the issue of women’s rights. At a very young age, she was already questioning the unique model of the housewife that prevailed there and to which her sisters, her cousins submitted…. “This culture disturbed me a lot,” she tells us.

She was fortunate to have a mother who encouraged her to study and be independent. From this rural woman, she remembers a sentence that has accompanied her throughout her journey: “Your education is the key to your freedom,” she recalls.

In 2011, she left Morocco to discover new horizons. She studied political science, information and communication science and governance leadership in the United States, France and the United Kingdom.

Womenpreneur: Empowering Women through financial independence

It was very early on that she started mobilizing for women’s issues. In her entourage, she met young raped girls, many women victims of violence, injustice… She advocated against these social phenomena through two blogs, “World Pulse” and “Youth Voice”, which made her known and intervened in conferences… 

Wishing to do more to help women, she decided to focus her commitment on women’s financial independence. “When a woman needs money, she does not realise the injustice in her environment. Economic participation is a real tool for independence,” she says. 

Therefore, in 2016, she founded Womenpreneur. An initiative that brings together 13,000 women entrepreneurs in 20 countries around the world. Since its launch, the initiative has implemented 35 projects for the benefit of women entrepreneurs, job seekers, rural women, offering them incubation and support programs for projects, improving visibility for access to investors… Womenpreneur also carries out advocacy and lobbying actions… and drafts recommendations that it shares with international decision-makers and local authorities.

Womenquake, womenpreneur digital Hub… to empower women

The young Moroccan woman is also at the origin of other initiatives. In 2017, she launched the “Womenquake” movement, a space to question certain established norms. The movement organises debates on taboo subjects relating to gender and women: women’s sexuality, the hijab, abortion… The movement is active in Belgium, Sudan, Germany, Azerbaijan…

The young activist also launched this week “Womenpreneur Digital Hub” which is a virtual space providing free access to entrepreneurial skills, financial education, technological literacy, a series of events, networking opportunities and skills development for women in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. The platform, which has been operational since this week, gives women the opportunity to access tools to develop their full potential.

Author of “Invisible Women in the Middle East”

In 2018, following a trip to the Arab world, she published a book entitled “Invisible Women in the Middle East” in which she tells stories of women she met. The book highlights several themes such as virginity, sexuality, religion … and aims to reconsider the treatment of women in society.  

She was a consultant on gender for the European Commission. Since 2019, she has also been a consultant for the United Nations on gender issues and has contributed to the drafting of several resolutions and recommendations on the subject.

Because of her commitment, Sana Afouaiz has received several awards. She has been named “Woman of Influence” by the World Bank. She was also ranked among the 100 most influential innovators by “Social Enablers”.