In 2013 our founder, Rola El Chami had returned from Palestine and Jordan, where she worked with an international NGO supporting communities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and in refugee camps across the Middle East; that she eventually ended up in Dubai. She found herself in a difficult situation where she wanted to be back at work where she could make a difference and, in the field, supporting others – something she was not able to achieve in Dubai at the time.

After a while, Rola entered the metropolitan lifestyle, worked with a PR agency, and represented a range of different international renown clients. Between work and social life, she continued her research on refugees, women, and children with a focus on domestic violence in the Middle East as well as making hand-made bracelets as a hobby.

Through research, she found is that gender violence manifests essentially as violence against women, and it is one of the most significant epidemics in the Middle East today. We have seen the numbers of domestic abuse rise significantly across the region and in any given time of any conflict or a pandemic, the most people to be affected and that are vulnerable, are women.

What she discovered further in her journey throughout speaking to women across the region, was that the two main factors why Arab women (specifically) remain in abusive relationships are due to three main factors;