Tunisian youth creates unique online platform to unite female entrepreneurs

Founder of Entr@crush, Tunisian Hayfa Sdiri hopes to wake up to a gender-unbiased world, where women enjoy the same opportunities as men.

Promulgating a message of empowerment and encouraging young girls to partake in entrepreneurship, she runs an online forum that connects entrepreneurs, creators and funders with ideas and skills.

She believes in creating a space where women have the same rights as their male counterparts, which she has materialised in her platform. Living in a country, that although has equal rights for both the genders in its books of law, raises concerns over women who are bold, daring enough to challenge the predominant societal norms.

“I founded Entr@crush, a new kind of online platform for Tunisian youth who have entrepreneurial ideas, to network with like-minded people, donors and entrepreneurs. It provides e-learning courses in a variety of topics, from management and accounting to communications, to prepare young entrepreneurs. It matches donors with young entrepreneurs. We are building this non-profit initiative with only five people and virtually no capital. We found volunteers to donate their skills,” she shared describing her project.

She envisions of a world where gender equity is real.

“One day, I want to wake up to find gender equality is real. I will stay out late that night; I will wear whatever I want to, without worrying about being harassed. I will be free to live by myself if I wanted to; I will earn as much as a man.”

At just 19 years of age, Hayfa has done quite the unfathomable. She has become a global icon with a huge number of women-oriented platforms picking and sharing her story as source to inspire   others.