Fatima Al-Falasi

A UAE-based social entrepreneur who revolutionized STEM education access for girls across the Middle East

Fatima Al-Falasi (b. 1989) is a United Arab Emirates-based social entrepreneur and founder of STEM for Women, a nonprofit organization that has empowered over 50,000 girls in 12 Middle Eastern countries since 2020. Recognized by the UN Women as one of the top 100 changemakers in 2023, her work challenges traditional gender roles through innovative tech education programs.

Al-Falasi developed the region's first Arabic-language coding curriculum tailored for girls aged 12-18, which now operates in partnership with Microsoft's AI for Good initiative. Her CodeHer mobile app (downloaded 2.1M times) provides gamified learning modules accessible even in low-bandwidth areas. In 2022, she launched the Makerspaces4Girls initiative, establishing 85 physical labs equipped with 3D printers and robotics kits in rural areas like Yemen and Palestine.

Her most transformative achievement came in 2024 when she partnered with the UAE Space Agency to create the Arab Girls in Space program, mentoring 300 students from refugee camps to participate in satellite design competitions. This initiative directly led to 15% increase in female engineering students across GCC universities between 2023-2025. Al-Falasi's TEDx talk "Breaking Algorithms of Inequality" has garnered 4.2M views, positioning her as a global advocate for intersectional tech equity.