“Do you mind working with men?” Nahed Taher recalls being asked before taking a job as the only woman amid 4,000 male employees at Saudi Arabia’s largest lender, National Commercial Bank.
Less than four years later, the Saudi-born Taher, 43, became the first Arab woman to set up a bank, and the only woman in the Persian Gulf to run one -- Gulf One Investment Bank, which is gathering $10 billion for infrastructure projects and doubled first-half profit this year. She still isn’t allowed to drive, even though she’s financed the air terminals that handle Hajj pilgrims visiting Islam’s holiest cities. Though almost half her staff are women, Taher says too few of her gender are willing to defy Saudi cultural norms and earn a living.
