Saturday 15 / March / 2025
Muscat: Oman’s Haifa Al Khaifi, who was recently ranked 45th in Forbes Middle East’s list of ‘The 100 Most Powerful Arab Businesswomen,’ attributes her success to His Majesty’s wise leadership and her family.
She said, “I attribute this to my parents and sister, who provided me with a robust grounding of humility, respect, and hard work, underpinned by a resilient spiritual well-being.”
“I also attribute it to my children for their unwavering support, and to the wise leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said (may God protect him), who has provided for the advancement of women in Oman through favourable constructs and legislative infrastructure, ensuring equal opportunity [for women] to make an impact in the country and beyond,” said Al Khaifi, who has been working at the Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) since 1995, and currently holds the position of finance director.
Al Khaifi says that she is humbled to be on the prestigious list. “I first wanted to rationalise what being on the ‘Forbes 100 most powerful Arab women’ actually meant. I found out that ‘Forbes’ narrows the list down to 100 from a group of 300 women from 13 countries. “Subsequently, they rank based on company size, position, and sphere of impact. Having understood the criteria, I was truly humbled to be one of seven Omani women to have made it to the Forbes list.”
After achieving this milestone, this inspiring Omani says that she wants to help more women come to the front.
“I wish to recognise some truly brilliant women who fight against the odds on a daily basis, for some extraordinary achievements that may perhaps not be compartmentalised into a set of metrics. I am equally inspired by these women.”
For her, being a working woman in Oman has been a great experience because of the equal opportunities available in the country for both men and women.
“It is a privilege to be a working woman in Oman. Organisations here are professional and respectful of the contribution that women bring to the table. They provide for equal opportunities for women, with progressive and inclusive policies.
“There are myriad opportunities for women and very limited glass ceilings. In the few instances that there are barriers, there are adequate escalation measures in place to ensure that these are addressed accordingly.” However, she adds that there is a minority of people that women may have to challenge and learn to deal with.
“In any society, there is bound to be a minority that may not necessarily be embracer of such favourable changes for women, which may encourage independence, even though it ultimately translates into a robust contribution towards furthering the strategic achievement of a country.
“One has to empathetically accept that every changing society has liberals and conservatives, and each group will show varying receptivity to change, particularly in relation to attitudes and values that are innate,” she explained.
“I have encountered minimal adverse views from this minority of conservatives; however, they have embraced positive reasoning when it has been presented to them in an unemotional and respectful manner,” she added.
Being a role model to women not only in Oman but across the Arab world and beyond, Al Khaifi has a message for women. “My plea would most definitely be for women to continue to support one another. Appreciating the types of unique challenges and demands faced by fellow women in the workplace and society at large, women in key leadership roles should ideally facilitate the fair representation of women’s needs in an organisation,” she said.
“This may be in the form of driving policies that result in equitable chances for women to succeed in the workplace or to drive specific management training and career development [programmes] that caters towards closing gaps that are typical to women.
“Women in leadership positions may also ensure that female advancement is not impeded by ensuring an appropriate sustainable balance of gender equality in the organisation’s talent funnel,” she added.
