Career talks: Meet Sofana Dahlan, the pioneering female lawyer from Saudi Arabia

Joining me today is Sofana Dahlan, a trailblazing female lawyer from Saudi Arabia. As a social entrepreneur and a woman of unwavering determination and passion, Sofana has overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her relentless pursuit of justice. I've always believed that compassion is one of humanity's most admirable traits, and Sofana is a shining example of how it can be harnessed as a powerful force to achieve the seemingly impossible. I'm confident that our discussion today will offer valuable insights and inspiration. Sofana, you have my utmost respect.

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Back in 1997, women were not permitted to study law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, it came as a surprise to me that my request to further pursue my legal education outside of the Kingdom was granted and approved by the Ministry of Higher Education.

Fadi: Sofana, your achievement as the first female lawyer in Saudi Arabia is truly remarkable. Despite the significant changes that have taken place in the kingdom in recent years, your ambition to pursue a career in law and your dedication to upholding justice came long before this transformation. What inspired you to pursue a profession that was previously prohibited to women, and how were you able to overcome the challenges and obtain your license to practice?

Sofana: The path to achievement has not been an easy one for me. Throughout the course of my life, I have encountered many problems, obstacles, and social barriers. It was precisely these things that made me adapt, learn how to be more flexible and reshape my path.

When I was in high school, I wanted to study architecture as it was not taught in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I wanted to use this as an escape route out of Saudi. Then one day, I heard a story of a woman who grew up as an orphan and married a wealthy man. When he passed away, the children from his previous marriage forced her out and deprived her of her inheritance. When she sought the help of a male lawyer, it was used against her, and she was accused of having an affair with him. At that moment, I realised that having female legal representation was a necessity in my country. As a result, this became my primary reason to study law and it was something I really wanted and believed in.

Back in 1997, women were not permitted to study law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, it came as a surprise to me that my request to further pursue my legal education outside of the Kingdom was granted and approved by the Ministry of Higher Education. However, with this acceptance and the prospect of the move abroad, came the onslaught of different challenges. One of them was the uncertainty of pursuing a legal career as a woman and the second was more related to the cultural context, where a woman studying abroad was widely frowned upon and was always talked about negatively.

After graduation in 2001, I encountered another setback as I applied to get my degree accredited in Saudi Arabia only to be rejected since women were not allowed to practice law and nor did I have proof of having been accompanied by a male guardian or companion throughout my time at university.

As the years went by, despite all the obstacles I faced, I never stopped seeking my right to be recognised as a lawyer in Saudi Arabia. In 2012, I reapplied to obtain a license and on 25th July 2013, I was recognised as the first female lawyer to have obtained permission to practice law in Saudi Arabia. I firmly believe that whatever tribulations and struggles my generation went through to be recognised has helped us gain perseverance.

My firm holds the distinction of being the first all-female Saudi law firm along with being the first law firm in Saudi Arabia to primarily focus on cultural and creative industries and provide services in 3 languages, Arabic, English and French.

Fadi: After everything you went through, how does it feel to have your own law firm in Saudi Arabia today? In what ways does your firm distinguish itself from other firms in the Kingdom?

Sofana: Establishing my law firm was the perfect way to culminate my 12-year struggle of obtaining official recognition within the legal sector in Saudi Arabia. My firm holds the distinction of being the first all-female Saudi law firm along with being the first law firm in Saudi Arabia to primarily focus on cultural and creative industries and provide services in 3 languages, Arabic, English and French. The firm stays up to date with the trends in the legal sector, for example, due to digitalisation we are dealing with clients involved in unique businesses such as NFTs, Fintechs etc. Similarly, globalisation has led to a shift in demand towards conflict resolution, which is something the firm has always been a keen advocate of.?

Amendments to existing laws have removed restrictions on women’s travel, recognised their status as head of households, and ensured their equitable access to employment opportunities, pay, maternity leave, and retirement, among other social and economic rights.

Fadi: The ongoing transformations in Saudi Arabia have a profound impact on women residing in the country. While progress has been made, there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done. From your perspective, what is the current status of women in Saudi Arabia? In your opinion, what are the most important laws and policies that need to be prioritized to further advance women's rights in the country?

Sofana: The recent legislative changes have granted women more citizen rights and have empowered and given them the means of activating the role of ‘half of society’.

Although the whole country is positively impacted by these changes, Saudi women are the major direct beneficiaries henceforth, strengthening their role in national development. Amendments to existing laws have removed restrictions on women’s travel, recognised their status as head of households, and ensured their equitable access to employment opportunities, pay, maternity leave, and retirement, among other social and economic rights. All these developments have contributed to women becoming independent in the true sense and has enabled them to broaden their horizons when it comes to acquiring education or exploring networking opportunities abroad for their businesses.

Moreover, these changes are aligned with the earlier reforms that have been introduced in the Kingdom as part of Vision 2030, such as allowing women to drive, approval of anti-harassment law and empowerment of women to establish and manage businesses without prior approval. To sum it up, in all areas of society gender equality is improving and the nation and its people are genuinely moving forward to the point where women will be treated the same as men in all aspects of life.

I recognised a recurring trend in all my cases, which was that all creatives I worked with signed contracts that had provisions that were unjust for them.

Fadi: It's not only your expertise in law that's impressive, but also your role as a social entrepreneur. Your commitment to justice and advocacy for the greater good is truly inspiring. I'm intrigued by your founding of Tashkeil, an organization dedicated to incubating, accelerating, and supporting creative entrepreneurs in Lebanon and KSA. Could you tell me more about the inspiration behind this venture and the impact it has had? How successful has the project been thus far?

Sofana: One of the main reasons for establishing Tashkeil was the type of cases that I worked on as an IP lawyer. I recognised a recurring trend in all my cases, which was that all creatives I worked with signed contracts that had provisions that were unjust for them. After investigating this matter, I came to the conclusion that the problem was twofold. The first aspect was regarding the pre-awareness and understanding of the contracts; many creatives did not understand the context of the contracts they signed, nor their scope. That is why they were signing contracts without properly understanding their legal implications. The second aspect is related to the nature of IP, as it is often difficult to decipher its many layers and complexities. My solution to propose mediation gradually unfolded the complexities, allowing both parties to come to a resolution or at least define the main reason for their dispute before going to litigation.

Therefore, Tashkeil was established in 2010 as a platform to support the creatives in the Middle East to scale up their talents and transform their initiatives into sustainable businesses by providing them with proper legal and business knowledge and opportunities. Tashkeil was one of the first entities in Saudi Arabia that focused on creating positive societal changes and making valuable contributions to the local community. By harnessing information, opportunities, and support Tashkeil offers enormous opportunities to enhance productivity not only in the region’s creative sector, and but in society overall.

Tashkeil’s name is inspired from diacritics of Arabic script and the vocalization of Arabic words (accents), which gives all works in Arabic not only its phonetics but more importantly its meaning. The diacritics symbolize and highlight the potential of a range of actions and how they all overlap and empower one another. The seven diacritics each stand for:

• Fat’ha: represents design as a platform for social change and exchange of ideas.
• Damma: facilitates cultural exchange through visual communication, art and design.
• Kasra: a membership program which helps designers break obstacles and enable them to focus on their creative work.
• Madd builds bridges between designers, retail markets, direct consumers and the wider commercial world.
• Tanwīn: create an online presence.
• Shadda: spread the network to focus on collective support.
• Sukun: promote peace and harmony between cultures through engagement in social corporate activities, locally and globally.

Our services and programs were developed based on a socio-economic cycle that was?inspired by the foundation and principles of an Islamic economy. Over time, Tashkeil identified more gaps in community and industry building and started focusing on developing creative clusters and mapping the creative industry. Yon can find more information about our programs on www.tashkeil.com.

As far as our achievements go, one of our main successes was to build a strong network in the early stages of our operation. We continue to grow our partnerships and have created and continue to maintain a broad database. In our ten years, we have supported more than 5,000 creatives.

We have had more than 50 creative entrepreneurs go through our accelerated program, launched 30 projects and hosted over 35,000 guests who attended one of our more than 170 workshops or one of our 85 events.

one of the major impediments to the growth of creatives was the lack of affordable workspaces.

Fadi: What about your other venture? How does Kayan Space + Studio compare to Tashkeil in terms of its goals and approach?

Sofana: After incubating our first batch of creatives at Tashkeil, we identified gaps in the market and one of the major impediments to the growth of creatives was the lack of affordable workspaces. So, in response to this need, Kayanspace was created in 2013. Offering a unique co-working ecosystem, Kayan’s spatial philosophy is inspired by its Arabic roots that signify the coordinated function of the hand form entity which involves connective bones, tissues, and muscles working in unison to function together. The working space is designed to support your creative beginnings and innovations by incubating a working ethos based on connectivity, coordination, and collaboration. At Kayan, we truly believe in the transformative power of illustration and design and the ability to simplify communications, elevate experiences, engage and inspire people everywhere.?

when I was shortlisted to be on the Advisory Board in 2019, I did not hesitate in accepting as it was important for me to give back to the community

Fadi: and.. how did you become a member of the Advisory Group for Young Global Leaders, and what was your role in assisting the group?

Sofana, When I first nominated as a Young Global Leader back in 2015, I didn’t really know what being a YGL was and what it entailed. However, when I was shortlisted to be on the Advisory Board in 2019, I did not hesitate in accepting as it was important for me to give back to the community – a community that has given me a lot, as it helped me in scaling my leadership skills and accelerating my international network. As part of the Board, I worked on promoting a higher alumni involvement while serving as a member of the Alumni Taskforce, with additional accountability for providing guidance to the YGL team and overseeing changes to the YGL programme, new class selection, and other key areas of interest.

Fadi: Your career and life experiences are truly awe-inspiring, and you demonstrate that there are no limits to what an individual, particularly a woman, can accomplish with unwavering determination and passion. If you had to choose just one thing that you would love to see happen, what would it be?

Sofana: To see women with legal and religious qualifications actively be a part of the judiciary such as judges, scholars and ministers.

My outlook on law or being a lawyer is to be a problem solver and resolve disputes as conflict prevention is a key part of it.

Fadi: I find your ambitious aspirations and impressive achievements to be truly remarkable. Your innovative approach to making the law more accessible is commendable. Would you mind sharing with our readers your latest project to create a marketplace for legal documents?

Sofana: I have always viewed law as a tool for problem solving. My outlook on law or being a lawyer is to be a problem solver and resolve disputes as conflict prevention is a key part of it.

I kickstarted Tashkeil (2008-2018) as a creative incubator which evolved into a socially conscious creative consultancy that created a quantum shift in the creative sphere of Saudi Arabia and soon after established the first all-female Saudi law firm in 2013 that focused on corporate and commercial law with a specialisation in intellectual property. This was followed by my time in Monshaat as a Vice Governor for Entrepreneurship Advancement in 2016 which led to me realise the importance of building ecosystems, engaging communities, establishing sustainable frameworks and platforms for diversifying the economy while simultaneously identifying gaps that hindered the growth of entrepreneurs and SMEs.

I discovered that one of the main barriers to a successful business is the lack of legal protection offered to entrepreneurs and SMEs which often leads to conflicts. This is primarily due to the fact that obtaining legal documentation through conventional means is time-consuming and expensive and there is a scarcity of online legal contracts in Arabic as whatever little is available is not reliable in terms of quality.

The absence of legal protection spurred by the rampant digitalisation of services through the National Transformation Program (NTP) and the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic led me to conceptualise Mustanad, a legal marketplace that aims to serve as a one-stop solution for professional legal documents and templates in Arabic provided by licensed lawyers and law firms. Mustanad brings the end user, which is the entrepreneurs and SMEs and the content providers, lawyers and law firms together. The goal is to simplify the procurement process and make it easier for users to quick-access a wide variety of high-standard premium legal documents and templates at affordable prices in Arabic with the option to translate into English, French, Mandarin.

Fadi: Being a Saudi woman, you undoubtedly encounter countless obstacles. If you had to pinpoint one particular challenge that you consider to be the most difficult, what would it be, and how were you able to surmount it?

Sofana: Myself. Being objective with myself, constantly reflecting, looking for areas of growth, expanding my expertise, always being curious, learning more are all ways of overcoming myself.

Fadi: Your achievements and endeavors are a great inspiration to both men and women. Could you share the names of three women who have been a source of inspiration for you throughout your journey?

Sofana:

• Khadija bint Khuwalid as I believe she is the most progressive woman. She did not conform to the norms and status quo of her time. She was a businessman, got married more than once, proposed to her husband, married someone half her age, embraced her womanhood and beauty, had children after the age of 40, and supported and invested in the Prophet’s vision. She was basically the “seed investor” in a vision that has reached billions today. All of this does not take away from what is written about her in the scriptures, about how she was a mother. She truly represents an ideal woman figure for me.
• Queen Effat (Iffat bint Mohammad Al Thunayan) was the pioneer of female education in Saudi Arabia. She broke new ground in establishing it as one of the cornerstones on which our nation is built. She founded Dar Al Hanan, the first private school for girls in 1955, fighting tirelessly to eradicate illiteracy and make education for young girls equivalent to that of young boys. To Queen Effat, a woman’s education was her weapon, and women armed with education form the pillars of society. She had a holistic vision of learning, embracing extra-curricular activities as a requirement for a well-rounded education. This vision went hand-in-hand with traditional values, a dedication to Islam, and respect for all human beings. She lived her faith and inspired all women to do the same.
• Dr. Thoraya Obaid who was the first Saudi to head a UN agency. She was appointed head of UNFPA in 2001 with the rank of Under-Secretary General of the United Nations. Throughout her illustrious career, she has stayed true to herself, did not conform to norms, embraced her cultural beautifully and represented her country amazingly.

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