“When I was a child, I really wanted to change the world. It all started from my desire to make an impact,” says Nezha Alaoui, entrepreneur, global advocate, and founder of Women Choice. For more than a decade, the Moroccan-born changemaker, and mother of two daughters, has been quietly laying the groundwork for effective change in women’s lives. Today, as Women Choice grows across the region, that vision is gaining global momentum.

Her journey began in Morocco, where her early work as a photographer for the United Nations offered first-hand insight into the realities faced by vulnerable communities. These experiences sparked a deeper understanding of women’s pivotal role in driving long-term transformation. After spending time in humanitarian roles with the UN and the World Food Programme, she moved to New York to launch her company. Now, she calls Dubai home, where she runs Women Choice, a growing enterprise dedicated to equipping women with the tools and community they need to thrive.

“When it comes to extreme poverty, women are the most affected, but they are also the ones seeking solutions,” says Alaoui. “And whatever solutions they find, they give them back to their community and the next generation.” This led to a key realisation: “By helping women, you’re not excluding men. You’re creating a ripple effect for everyone.”

This belief gave rise to Women Choice, a multifaceted social enterprise that began as the Mayshad Foundation – named after the syllables of her daughters’ names. As a young mother at 24, Alaoui had already begun to map out a life of purpose that could integrate both her maternal instincts and professional ambitions. She launched the Mayshad brand at age 30 initially as a non-profit, later evolving it into a hybrid model to bring in the private sector. “It was really the early stage of corporate social responsibility,” she says. “Budgets were hard to come by…so I’d ask companies for marketing funds to create impact while offering a communication point.” This approach helped her break into a space dominated by traditional NGO models. With bold messaging and smart partnerships, she carved out a new area where social impact met corporate innovation.

By 2017, her community of like-minded women had grown organically, from LinkedIn meet-ups and curated lunches to a fully-fledged network. “There was always a common thread – they were hardworking career women, but also curious and eager to connect,” she recalls. That network would later become Women Choice, a platform dedicated to economic opportunity, career advancement, and personal growth.

Alaoui’s move from New York to Dubai in 2020 came during a consultancy for the Saudi government, and it quickly became clear the region was ready for transformation. “It made sense for me. I’m from Morocco and wanted to reconnect with my Middle Eastern roots.” Today, she leads high-impact collaborations in the region. 

“We’ve had some amazing things happen,” she says. “We have incredible partners like Mastercard, we’re launching a women’s empowerment hub for PepsiCo… We have become a hub for companies that want to create impact but struggle with execution.”

Execution, for Alaoui, is about measurable change. That’s why Women Choice focuses so heavily on financial independence, which she sees as the epitome of empowerment. 

“Women are strong. They’re are smart. But when it comes to gender-based violence, many stay in that situation because they don’t have a choice,” she says. “That is why many of the Women Choice initiatives are linked to financial opportunity through career development, entrepreneurship, or fundraising, giving women financial independence allows them to make free choices.”

Now, she is preparing to scale the business further, expanding across the region and launching a digital platform to connect women and accelerate progress across borders. “We’re a social enterprise, and I need to scale it,” she says. “My next steps are to meet investors, grow our ambassador network, and focus on partnerships that will help us grow.”

Despite the pressures of entrepreneurship, Alaoui maintains a grounded lifestyle focused on wellness and balance, values she shares with her daughters, now 16 and 18. “The body is a consequence of the brain,” she says, “I recently invested in an infrared sauna and an ice bath!” On motherhood, she is candid. “I love to share my truth… I was 24, so my daughters have grown up with me. I’m not a perfect parent… but I’m a great mother. I give them all the setup to succeed, but they need to do the work.” Her parenting mirrors her leadership – empowering, values-driven, future-focused. At the heart of her message is intentional living. “Be who you want to be,” she says, referencing her book Be A Leader, Be Who You Want To Be. “Start envisioning who you want to be without limits and then have a plan to get there.” 

Looking ahead, she is focused on growing Women Choice into a global force. “The challenge is going from a small enterprise to a medium enterprise,” she says. “My goal for 2025 is to make Women Choice less dependent on me… and I’m starting to see it happen.” Beyond that? Her next book, The Rising World of Women in the Arab World, aims to reshape how the West views Arab women. “It’s a book to be published in the West – to change the stereotype of women in the Arab world and how they are perceived globally.”

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