“My name is Soumaya, I am a French Master's student majoring in International trade. As a woman I feel concerned about gender inequality, even if I am supposed to live in a country where inequalities between men and women do not exist. In reality, women are still discriminated against and are not on an equal footing with men on many spheres. For example, women graduates are likely to earn less than male graduates with similar degrees and most companies leaders are men. In addition, it is twice more difficult to succeed when you belong to a minority because there are a lot of obstacles. When you are a woman you already have to deal with clichés, but as a Muslim woman you will also have to deal with religious stereotypes and often with discrimination. Several institutions like Amnesty International have called the attention to the fact that Muslim women are discriminated against in France just because they chose to demonstrate their faith. It is nearly impossible to work with a scarf, even if there is no law which prohibits to wear a scarf in a private company.” - Soumaya M

This story is the fifth in a weekly series that we are running in collaboration with UN Women and its Empower Women Champions for Women’s Economic Empowerment. Read the previous story here. To contribute to the Campaign, see here.