Panelist n mentoring session: Challenges women entrepreneurs faced organized by BFM- Business FM

admin — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 13:39:33 +0000

Interview by HRD Corp on National Training Week 2024

admin — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 08:55:01 +0000

Featured in Metropolitan-Hari Wanita

admin — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:55:44 +0000

Different Kind Of Modern Woman

admin — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 04:21:54 +0000

Men and women are equal in the eyes of God, but not in the eyes of men itself. This is the stigma that we painfully need to abide to although years have passed and modernization has taken place. It is as if that it has been written that women must be stereotyped and need to obey a certain standard and a way of life; to bow down to men and fulfil their needs as if they are not granted the same physique by The Almighty.

This may or may not be the case anymore in the 21^st century as women do have some say in the path of life that they want to choose (well, some, I mean, a teeny, weeny voice), but there are still women out there who are stuck between men, culture, religion, and especially conflicting with themselves, between fighting their way to freedom or resort to the expectations.

“15-year old Emelia should enjoy her life”, she said as she stirred her hot Cappucino that was embroideried with a creative touch of creamer. She laughed with a dreamy sight, looking through the glass windows that separated the inside and outside interior of Plan B, Publika, probably seeing herself being the dancing queen by attending ballet classes at noon and styling her hair with references from notable girl groups of her time like ABBA. Emelia Matrahah has always enjoyed life and that feeling never ages, but she knew some women out there does not get much freedom.

Studying abroad during her college days has made her more open-minded as how a ‘modern woman’ should be, but on a personal level, she firmly believes that the definition of a successful woman is subjective.

“It is very hard to say”, she said indecisively. “I think it is back to your passion. If you are passionate in your career and be able to reach great heights, you are successful. If you are passionate to become a housewife, you are still successful either way”.

Then again, she had to admit that the amount of women in the workforce, judging by the current situation in her own office is alarming. “There is so much potential in female graduates since there has been a lot of us now, but why does this still happens?”, she could not find the answer herself.

Many women are educated but they chose to abandon the qualifications that they have once they choose to settle down. Some women are afraid to continue climbing up the career ladder due to lack of support, especially from the closest people around them such as their family and partner.

“Here, women feel devoted to men”, she gave her opinion critically on the scenario of women in the local society. “The society are used to be colonised, hence we prefer being the passenger instead of being the driver”. Women think that it is crucial for them to have everyone’s point of view and people feel entitled to have a say and dictate on how a woman should act and behave all her life when in reality, the only voice that she should listen to is her heart with a thorough evaluation from her brain, that’s it.

However, it is not a problem for Emelia as she is surrounded with working women that has made her set to achieve her dreams without any obstacle and not be bothered about anything, let alone the opposite gender.

She never see any problem of being a career woman, from the start of her first job to her current position as the Chief Executive Officer and Interim President of MIMOS Malaysia and set her mother as an example. “My mother was working too when I grew up, but there has never been any gap between us. My aunts are career women too and they are good mothers as well”, she said while quoting her experience when she was growing up.

As a mother of three herself, she does not priortise one responsibility from the other. “Women are born to be multitaskers”, she chuckled. “I can be in a meeting while communicating with the Parents and Teachers Association committee on the phone. It is not that hard”, she adds and gives a bright smile.

Emelia has been blessed with a doting husband that supported her as she struggled to climb up the career ladder, but compromise has to come hand in hand. Both of them have their own individual goals and responsibilities to attend to, and it gets more demanding as they start to have their own family. She reminisced a time when her husband would always be outstationed and she had to choose between working in a private corporate banking company or accepting the position at MIMOS. She chose MIMOS because she wanted her children to continue receiving care and support from their parents especially when one had to attend to his or her working commitments.

At work, Emelia is dedicated and are driven to be the best version of herself each day while abiding the principles that she stands on. She has a group of friends that she shares the bits of her life with, but she chooses to separate personal and professional affairs. “If they were to interfere with my work or what I am doing, it simply means that they are taking advantage of me instead of being friends.”.

She also highly regards integrity as an important factor when handling her job. Being in the management industry for years, she has encountered many complications at work. All incidents never break her as she puts it, but one of them has impacted her deeply when there were irresponsible parties that counterfeited her signature.

“It was horrifying”, she said as she flashed back the traumatizing life episode. The feeling when people have lost their trust on her were absurd. It has become a stepping stone for her to realise that trust is valuable and cannot be bought, because it would take time for people to trust someone again after it is broken, sometimes never.

In the future, Emelia is looking forward to see more women being confident to strive in the fields that they are passionate about, and overcome their fears. “Women and men are created equally by God with their own strength and weaknesses”, she said, believing that every individual is eligible to be in any respective positions with hard work and meeting the proper qualifications and experiences to do so.

She also stressed the importance of teamwork as men and women have different qualities, hence which is why she also needs her male colleagues at work to guide and help her as well while carrying their duties together, same as how she also needs her husband to balance out at home.

Women and men are created equally by God to support one another, not to be in a race on who is more deserving and privileged. There is a saying that ‘life is unfair because it is fair’, but the sustenance and the journey that The Almighty puts through each individual are crafted customly for all of us, and for Emelia, she does not want to have it any other way.

“You should enjoy life too”, she said as she took her last sip of the specially brewed Cappucino that is now warm as her heart as she counts her blessings everyday.

Power Lunch Event

admin — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 16:37:06 +0000

MIMOS: Charting the national tech agenda

admin — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 04:08:31 +0000

SINCE helming the country’s national applied research and development (R&D) centre, MIMOS Bhd, interim president and chief executive officer Emelia Matrahah has only one thing on her mind — bringing the applied R&D agency to greater heights, with technology innovations that drive industry transformation.

She said MIMOS had a big role to play in helping the nation move forward in technology.

“Since the establishment of the agency in 1985, a number of initiatives have been carried out to help Malaysia become a high-tech nation.