For some women it is the bureaucratic barriers that have to be tackled when they attempt to get licences or register companies in male-dominated business sectors.

For others it is the challenge of overcoming perceptions and having to work that much harder to be accepted. And for all there is the problem of networking – how to compete with men who are able to thrash out deals and talk contracts in coffee shops and at diwans and other social events from which women are often excluded.