Dubai announced this week that a businesswomen building will arise in its Business Bay development.

Now that the city has exhausted its appeal as a duty-free paradise, as the Islamic financial capital of the world and as the location for the world's most expensive hotel,  the city now seeks the spotlight with its new women-friendly initiative.  Eve's Tower, located within Dubai's Business Bay development, will be the first tower where only women can own office space.


Men will be allowed to work in the tower, but women will be provided special facilities such as entrances, elevators nd car parks. The CEO of the project, Sulaiman Al-Fahim,  told Arabian Business that the project will "encourage entrepreneurship amongst women" and  "will lead to a new awakening and unleash the latent entrepreneurial talent of UAE women."

The move is ambiguous as Dubai is known for its restrictions on women. Prevailing moral rules dictate that it is inappropriate for Dubai women to speak in public to men they are neither married nor related to. Similarly, women that are out on their own are often frowned upon and all government universities are single-sex.

Yet the number of women in the Dubai workforce are steadily increasing, making them a force to reckon with in business. Starting with the building of Eve's tower. The project is expected to be finished by 2010.