Sepideh Nasiri is the CEO and founder of WoMENAIT, and an advocate for women, diversity and inclusion.
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It’s 2022, and yet, I and many others who are advocates for diversity and inclusion (D&I), particularly in STEM, still have to push for this movement.
Despite visible efforts to make progress on D&I, we still haven’t moved the needle. According to a 2021 report on diversity in the United States tech industry, “68% of businesses are aware of a continuing lack of diversity in their tech teams. Of those, 46% are actively trying to address the issue.”
But even surveys on D&I in the tech industry don’t account for all under-represented groups. Just take a look at Dice’s 2021 Equality in Tech report, where they surveyed technologists on pressing issues, such as compensation and burnout. The Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) community wasn’t acknowledged. However, other underserved groups were.
This is a serious issue that by no means only applies to Dice. In fact, look at the diversity reports of most major tech companies in the U.S., and you won’t find a MENA category for their workforce statistics.
This lack of MENA representation is indicative of a more widespread problem I’ve seen in the U.S. tech industry: Companies hire people of MENA descent—after all, it’s a community filled with lots of talent, particularly when it comes to women. According to 2015 UNESCO figures, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria and Oman had 65% and above of their female students “enrolled in natural science, mathematics and statistics” higher education programs.
However, these companies then don’t meaningfully invest in their employees of MENA descent. It’s not a stretch to say that people of MENA descent probably don’t even factor into corporate D&I strategies. This needs to change now—it’s 2022.
As the founder and CEO of a nonprofit focused on amplifying MENA women in the tech industry, I urge all tech companies to consider the following questions.
Why aren’t you investing in the Middle Eastern and North African community?
Some big names in the tech industry have invested in under-represented communities. For instance, in 2021, Boeing announced that it would donate $1 million to “organizations supporting Hispanic and Latinx communities” to “increase STEM education curriculum in underserved schools, advance Latinx-focused leadership and workforce development programs and diversify the aerospace talent pipeline.” I commend that move and encourage other companies to follow Boeing’s example by investing in all under-represented communities.
Each underserved group has its own painful challenges with prejudice, discrimination and racism. We must always remember intersectionality. Every underserved group deserves, and should receive, funding from the tech industry.
This is a call for tech executives to also allocate funding to the MENA community. In fact, they should invest more in every underserved community. Like other under-represented communities, the MENA community is full of talent: Consider Anousheh Ansari (engineer and CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation), Deena Shakir (partner at Lux Capital), Amira Yahyaoui (founder and CEO of Mos) and Iman Abuzeid (cofounder and CEO of Incredible Health), to name a few.
Let’s be clear: These investments alone haven’t solved the tech industry’s troubling diversity and discrimination issues, nor will they. We need to do far more for under-represented groups.
These investments are a starting point, but they aren’t comprehensive. Everyone, especially those in leadership who are of MENA descent themselves, should lead the way.
Why aren’t you enabling your employees of MENA descent to identify themselves?
Many tech companies in the U.S. typically don’t even know how many of their employees have MENA backgrounds—and without this knowledge, they can’t possibly know where to direct their investments and resources.
Sadly, the tech industry is hardly alone in this. For example, while the U.S. Census Bureau is finally having serious, albeit long overdue, discussions about adding a Middle East and North African category to the 2030 census; this community still has to wait eight more years to be accounted for on the census.
Official numbers on this unseen community are hard to find. In 2006, NPR reported, “Community estimates put the Iranian population in Southern California at 500,000.” That figure was for Southern California alone and was from more than 15 years ago. Search for “number of Iranians in the United States” today, and one number you’ll get is 577,000, calculated from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 ACS data. So is it around half a million for just one part of the country, or the entire country? It’s a similar story with other parts of the MENA community; for instance, even the U.S. Department of State admits that “estimates vary” regarding how many Arab Americans live in the United States, and puts its estimate at approximately 3 million.
Without the right data, how can D&I strategies be truly inclusive?
If you provide an opportunity for employees to check off “Middle Eastern and North African” on workplace demographic surveys and other questionnaires, your company’s D&I numbers will improve.
Granted, some employees might be wary of self-identifying due to the very real fears of racism and profiling, but it’s imperative that they at least have the option to self-identify.
How are you going to create a sense of belonging at work for your employees of MENA descent?
Currently, there are only a few organizations dedicated to serving people of MENA descent in the tech industry, including my own. A few tech companies have employee resource groups and affinity groups for people of MENA descent, but not nearly enough.
Give your employees of MENA origins the resources and support they need to start a MENA employee resource group. Additionally, when you know who is working for you, you can better champion diversity and representation, such as by nominating them for industry awards.
Educate the rest of your employees about the region. Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions about the MENA region and its people. For instance, some people don’t know that the MENA region is home to different religions (including Islam, Judaism and Christianity) and languages (including Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish).
Investing in providing avenues for self-identification and creating a sense of belonging for employees of MENA descent go hand-in-hand. Leaders need to acknowledge and elevate this talented community.
In particular, those in C-suites who have MENA backgrounds should think about the following question: If you don’t invest in your own community, then how can you expect others to do so?
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