Women’s entrepreneurship in the Middle East is characterised by greater obstacles than in other regions. While women entrepreneurs around the world often face significant challenges when starting or running a business, the situation in the Middle East is particularly daunting.
Our exploration of women in entrepreneurship in the area led us to Masoumeh Mohammadi, a notable Iranian entrepreneur who specialises in tailoring. She has made a significant contribution to online tailoring education in Iran and is working to transform the tailoring sector across the Middle East and potentially the world.
The inspiring journey of this entrepreneur, who founded the online tailoring education platform “Doukht Bartar,” is both captivating and motivational.
Masoumeh Mohammadi began her journey in 1994, almost three decades ago, teaching tailoring in schools and training centres in Iran. Fifteen years later, she founded a magazine called Doukht Bartar, which offers customised educational content. With a small team of four, she managed to turn Doukht Bartar into Iran’s leading tailoring magazine. However, the emergence of social media was a major hurdle for her business.
From Print to Digital Education
Reflecting on this transition, Masoumeh Mohammadi shares: “When social media platforms like Telegram channels and Instagram pages emerged, no one bought magazines anymore. People were looking for educational content and videos on social media. Those were tough times for us. In 2018, four trucks of unsold magazines were returned to our office. These unsold books cost around four billion tomans ( 400,000 USD then ), but we sold them in bulk for only four million tomans.”
As a result, Doukht Bartar magazine ended, which prompted her to return to teaching as a tailor in educational institutions. Nevertheless, she did not let up. In April 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, she envisioned a way to teach tailoring online. With schools and training centres closed, she began offering distance learning and decided to sell the instructional videos she had produced.
The Early Growth of Doukht Bartar Online
On 10 May 2020, she launched an Instagram page, which she named after her magazine Doukht Bartar, and began recording educational courses using only her phone and a tripod.
“After a while, I realised I couldn’t do it all on my own — teaching, recording, posting on Instagram and replying to direct messages. I also wanted to answer every single direct message. In the first month, my sister came to help me, and in the second month, I brought in two of my students to reply to comments and messages,” explains Masoumeh Mohammadi.
Within the first three months, Doukht Bartar evolved into a team of four. Masoumeh Mohammadi was responsible for producing and publishing content on Instagram, while the other team members managed comments and messages and coordinated the sale of full-length videos via Telegram.
The Remarkable Expansion of Doukht Bartar
Doukht Bartar’s Instagram account had garnered 60,000 followers in its fourth month. Mrs Mohammadi’s son then joined the team and focused on expanding the workforce. He hired four employees for marketing and sales and trained them in sales techniques. Soon after, a videographer, an editor and an accountant joined the team. The first sale of instructional videos, consisting of two professional courses, attracted 150 buyers and brought in 30 million Tomans within a week.
Not long after, Doukht Bartar’s website went online. A key feature of these courses was Masoumeh Mohammadi’s commitment to answering students’ questions in real time as they watched the videos.
Ultimately, she committed to helping students with their questions for up to a year after purchasing the course.
Doukht Bartar’s team expanded and built robust sales and support departments. Today, 250 employees work online around the clock, providing students with comprehensive support to guide them through their educational journey and help them launch their businesses.
Doukht Bartar’s Entry into the Global Tailoring Education Market
Today, Doukht Bartar’s Instagram account has 1.2 million followers, and the website offers over 18 different courses, seven unique physical products and specialised sewing patterns that enjoy a large customer base. These patterns are unrivalled and not available anywhere else.
Starting with only 150 online students, Doukht Bartar has significantly transformed online tailoring education in Iran. Currently, more than 85,000 students have participated in Doukht Bartar’s professional courses, receiving in-depth training and support that enables them to excel in their chosen fields of tailoring and gain a foothold in the labour market.
Masoumeh Mohammadi is now focussing on reshaping the tailoring landscape across the Middle East. She wants to extend the Doukht Bartar model to countries like Turkey and bring about a fundamental change in the Middle Eastern fashion and tailoring industry — similar to what she has achieved in Iran.
