As an Egyptian computer programmer, Eman Herawy is familiar with the challenges women in tech face. 

“There is a wage gap, and clients unsurprisingly compensate women less than men for the same job,” she said. 

Growing up in Zagazig, a city that is an hour and a half drive from Cairo but worlds apart,taught her to be aware of much more fundamental issues. Egypt is notorious for being highly centralized, and all high-paying tech jobs are almost exclusively in the capital. Families are less likely to allow their daughters to travel or grant them permission to relocate for education or work. The limitations start to form from the very beginning. 

To help combat these obstacles to success, Herawy has established Noon Dao, a community of women interested in blockchain technology in the Arab world, which she hopes will facilitate education, networking and opportunities. 

“I am starting with building the community first and then creating the governing structure,” she said to me recently. Herawy has plans for contribute-to-earn programs, women-led events and online seminars that female college students can attend regardless of their location. 

“I already receive inquiries and interest from women from all walks of life, from developers to stay-at-home mothers who are seeking reentry to the workforce,” she said. 

A Trip to Osaka

In 2020, Herawy took her first flight outside of the country to attend the Ethereum Developer conference, or DevCon, in Osaka, Japan. 

“I was the only Arab woman in the entire event,” she recalls. 

The Ethereum Foundation sponsored Eman’s trip and accommodation in its effort to expand adoption worldwide. For Herawy, being selected was a career highlight and a transformational moment. It was an acknowledgment that the long hours of self-study, independent research and guideless dabbling in the blockchain jargon are paying off. 

During high school, she did not have a computer because her family thought it might be a distraction. 

“In college, I studied a major that was enforced on me. I had no passion for [it],” she says, as the arcane educational system put her on a path to work as an English teacher. 

When she was finally granted the freedom to own a computer a new world revealed itself. She took an interest in programming and started taking courses and attending meetups. She educated herself, sought help from tech instructors and tried to grasp the basics computer science students take for granted. 

She graduated in 2008 and was already working in the IT sector. By 2017, she was a full-stack developer, working remote jobs for Gulf-based companies. One day, one of her colleagues sent her a video about blockchain technology and its possible applications.  

The NoonDAO web site

“It was love at first sight,” she said, “I was fascinated by its concepts and immediately wanted to learn everything there is to learn about it.” 

Herawy decided that she had found her calling. She believed that blockchain offered much-needed transparency and accountability, which are lacking in some governments in the region. She dreamed of projects that utilized blockchain technology for identity documentation. “With all the wars and climate change threats in our region, I felt that blockchain was the perfect solution,” she said. She practiced coding and writing a protocol for tracking organ donations. 

But self-education on blockchain proved to be a more cumbersome task than she anticipated. Resources were rare, and more importantly, there was a huge language barrier. 

English is the universal language of science, including computer science. Still, programmers communicate among themselves in their native tongues. At the time, the nascent technology was just beginning to gain traction in the country. After searching and networking, she managed to get in touch with about 10 fellow Egyptian blockchain developers. 

“We started to organize online study groups and try to teach each other what we know, but we did not even have the right Arabic terms to refer to the same concepts. What is a fork? What is a token or an NFT?” she said.

Giving Back to the Community 

When Herawy attended Devcon in Japan, she voiced her experience with those in charge. 

“In different sessions, people would ask how to learn about Ethereum and blockchain, and the answer was always to seek help online, take courses, reach out to local communities. It is not that easy for us in Egypt,” she said 

Credit card adoption in Egypt is very low, making online shopping or buying an online course difficult, and not to mention expensive. Women are much more likely than men to face resistance from their families to be independent, travel for conferences and attend events late at night. The Ethereum Foundation responded by promising to put more effort into empowering local communities and welcomed her contribution in expanding their Arabic language reach. 

Something else more profound happened in Osaka as well.  

“When I traveled to Japan, I did not have much confidence in myself and felt that I would be inferior to those I would meet there,” said Herawy. 

What she witnessed was different. Some developers were just like her, self-taught, with no computer science background. But even seasoned developers with years of experience were learning about the technology for the first time and were as knowledgeable about it as newcomers. 

“I felt that the playing field is leveled and that I can compete and take my place too,” she said. 

Confident that she would find the right job in blockchain space, she quit her job with no offer on the table. As the world became more accustomed to remote work after Covid-19, offers started flowing and freelance opportunities kept appearing in her inbox. 

“It is indeed a lucrative career, and the space is still not crowded,” she said. With the newfound success and sense of empowerment, she started giving back. 

Before founding Noon Dao, Herawy created Arabs in Blockchain, which organizes free online webinars for everyone interested in the space, from beginners curious to learn the basics to experts who present their latest work and ideas. The initiative has launched successful online events that attracted thousands of attendees from across the Arab region. 

She is also contributing to Abjad DAO, which meets weekly, to create unified translations for the most important blockchain terms in Arabic. Once completed, the DAO plans to evangelize its glossary to media organizations and other parties to consolidate knowledge and facilitate the sharing of information. 

In the past two years, Herawy was invited to blockchain conferences and events in the U.S., and UAE, and she says she will move abroad for the right job. Wherever she ends up, she is determined to do her part in making the road for other blockchain developers in the region easier and accessible, especially women. 

“There is no grand plan,” she said. “I am just following my heart, and will continue to do so”