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There’s no single definition of success anymore – and Saudi women are proving just that.
From boardroom leadership to breaking new ground in film, science, and global diplomacy, they’re reshaping what influence looks like today. Here, GRAZIA spotlights five trailblazing women who aren’t just part of the cultural shift, they’re leading it.
LUBNA OLAYAN
Former CEO and Deputy Chair of Olayan Financing Company, Lubna S. Olayan remains one of the Arab world’s most influential business voices. When she joined her family’s holding company in 1983, she stepped directly into a boardroom that wasn’t designed for women. Today, she continues to shape the region’s economic landscape with quiet strength, conviction and clarity of purpose. Ranked #1 on Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Arab Women in 2025, Olayan embodies leadership on her own terms: grounded, visionary, and entirely unafraid to hold space at the top.
MISHAAL ASHEMIMRY
As the first female aerospace engineer in the GCC, the first Saudi woman to work with NASA, and a commercial pilot, she has made the sky only the starting point. Today, she uses her platform to inspire young Arab women to pursue careers in STEM, championing a future where curiosity and ambition are never constrained by expectation.
TASNEEM SUlTAN
Saudi-American photographer and visual storyteller Tasneem Sultan has spent her career capturing the textures of real life across the Gulf and beyond. Her work – regularly featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, and global exhibitions – highlights the intimate, the overlooked, and the deeply human. More than images, her photographs are narratives that honour the stories of women, families, and communities.
HAIFAA AL-MANSOUR
Haifaa Al-Mansour, the first female filmmaker from Saudi Arabia, reshaped the region’s cinematic landscape with Wadjda – the first feature-length film shot entirely in the Kingdom and by a Saudi woman. Her storytelling challenges stereotypes and offers new frames through which to view Arab womanhood: nuanced, bold, and unfiltered. Al-Mansour continues to bring Saudi narratives to global screens, proving that visibility itself is a form of power.
PRINCESS REEMA BINT BANDAR AL SAUD
As Saudi Arabia’s first female ambassador to the United States, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud has reimagined what diplomacy looks like in the modern era. Her leadership champions women’s participation in sports, business, and cultural life, expanding the possibility of who gets to speak and where. With grace and determination, she shows a new generation of Saudi women that their presence is not only welcome on the world stage but needed.
