I recently read a fascinating article describing the unusual lingerie industry in Egypt. It’s weird enough that whole families in economically slumping areas shop together—women in hijabs or burqas—closely inspecting each article of lingerie with zero awkwardness and buying heaps at a time.

But the main peculiarity of the piece is that nearly all the shops are owned and operated by Chinese entrepreneurs who hardly speak any Arabic and remain almost entirely removed from the cultural climate.

On almost every issue affecting Egyptian society—religious strife, political turmoil—the entrepreneurs keep their distance to the point of ignorance.

They don’t want to meddle; they only want to do business. That they're selling intensely private lingerie in a conservative area is as funny as it is jarring. 

But one issue riles the immigrants, especially those involved in manufacturing: the marginalization of women in the workforce.

To the Chinese, it makes no sense. From their experience, women are better workers: harder working, more diligent and smarter.

Egyptian women in conservative areas are only really allowed to work if they aren’t married. Once they find a groom, they quit. Unmarried women are also unable to sleep away from their parents’ homes, meaning they can’t stay in dormitories near manufacturing centers built by the Chinese government (or their state-owned enterprises). This also means that overnight shifts that would allow 24-hour operation—a given in China apparently—is impossible.

All in all, this leads to thwarted ambitions for many entrepreneurs who are baffled by the lack of female independence.

As one factory owner said, “Inequality between men and women [is the biggest problem in Egypt]. Here the women just stay home and sleep. If they want to develop, the first thing they need to do is solve this problem. That’s what China did after the revolution. It’s a waste of talent here. Look at my family—you see how my wife works. We couldn’t have the factory without her. And my daughter runs the shop. If they were Egyptian, they wouldn’t be doing that.”

Since these entrepreneurs are employing hundreds, if not thousands, of workers and introducing innovative industries (such as bottle recycling), they may eventually liberalize working conditions, paving the way for women to gain more independence as families look to bring in more income.

Now, I’m not saying these manufacturing jobs are ideal. A lot of them treat humans like robots and they probably don’t pay very much.

But if they can help to employ more female workers, then maybe women will be gradually dislodged from their stuck position in the domestic sphere.

Hypothetically that could then lead to more opportunities for women: female lawyers, professors, doctors, managers, chefs, etc.

Who knows: maybe history books will refer to this era as “The Lingerie Revolution.” Or maybe they won’t.

You can start a revolution for women by signing the petition to protect the rights of girls and women in TAKE ACTION NOW.