Mariam AlSamadi, 26, and Anan Helwih, 23, are two Palestinian-Americans who have lived in the UAE for several years. The two young females launched a new initiative called “Dxb Women” promoting female-led businesses in the city. 
The coronavirus pandemic has left a major impact on a number of business globally, and despite many government making efforts to protect them, small firms are still struggling to survive. Therefore, AlSamadi and Helwih stepped up to promote those enterprises that are founded by a woman. 
AlSamadi said, “A year ago, we met on a Facebook group. We both had new-borns of a similar age, so our friendship instantly blossomed. We knew we wanted to work on something together and during quarantine [movement restrictions], we started noticing how many businesses were going through a tough time. So we wanted to contribute in our way.”
 “We came up with the ‘Dxb Women’ initiative where Mariam and I would visit and promote as many female-led businesses as we could,” Helwih added. 
“Many people want to help, but they’re unsure where to start. That’s where we come in. We find a lot of these businesses through groups on social media. We wanted to make that information accessible to more people and that’s why we chose Instagram.”
AlSamadi claimed, “Usually, once a week, on social media, we have people shout out their favourite businesses. It’s just a whole day where people can share and promote their own businesses or their favourite ones. It allows us to raise awareness about all the businesses out there, led by strong women that we should support.”