It signals a shift toward systemic intervention, providing environments where women-led enterprises can influence industry standards and drive commercial growth.

Strategic Partnership Launched

PublisHer has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone to dismantle systemic barriers facing women-owned publishing businesses.

The agreement establishes targeted incentives within SPC’s ecosystem, offering special licensing packages, business support, and promotional backing for women-led companies operating from the free zone.

Targeted Business Incentives

The partnership provides practical advantages: streamlined licensing, access to SPC’s infrastructure of over 9,600 companies from 100+ countries, and collaboration on workshops, book launches, and networking events. Selected annual programmes will utilise SPC’s Sheen Theatre, embedding women’s publishing initiatives directly into the emirate’s cultural infrastructure.

Global Network Access

PublisHer integrates SPC-based publishers into its international directory and worldwide professional community. Mentorship and capacity-building programmes address specific challenges in scaling operations, securing investment, and accessing global markets – areas where women publishers face documented disparities despite comprising the majority of the industry’s workforce.

The View From The Beach

Sharjah Publishing City stands as one of the few dedicated publishing free zones globally. PublisHer, launched by Bodour Al Qasimi during the 2019 Sharjah International Book Fair, has consistently highlighted women’s underrepresentation in senior leadership and ownership. This partnership moves beyond advocacy to deliver measurable, infrastructure-based solutions.

For publishing professionals, the collaboration offers a replicable model: embed gender equity programmes within existing industrial hubs to create pathways to ownership. It signals a shift toward systemic intervention, providing environments where women-led enterprises can influence industry standards and drive commercial growth.

Having said it offers a replicable model, I fear we will not see this emulated widely elsewhere, where vested interests, be they patriarchal, traditional or simply commercial, hold sway. But I’d be delighted to be proven wrong!

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.