The Druze women coders of the Carmel Mountains
A growing number of religious Druze women from Daliyat al-Karmel are entering the world of high-tech with the help of Lotus, a program launched in 2019 that trains them to become front-end developers, providing mentorship, job placement, and a workspace.
"I grew up in a very religious and conservative environment. I was the best student in my class, but I didn’t know what I would do," says Maha Kayouf, a 25-year-old software developer who grew up in a very religious Druze community in Daliyat al-Karmel.
Despite being the top of her class, she ended up leaving school in the eleventh grade, which she says is not uncommon for girls in her community, to work at a number of minimum wage jobs in retail and supermarkets. “It was very challenging. I always felt like this wasn’t my place. I loved to study and had a lot of dreams. Then I met Maysa.”
Maysa Halabi Alshiekh launched the Lotus program in collaboration with the Portland Trust six years ago with the goal of integrating Druze women into the high-tech sector. “The Lotus initiative was born out of the need to make the high-tech industry accessible to young women from the Druze community, through a deep understanding of Druze culture and unique challenges Druze women face,” Alshiekh explains. “Lotus empowers women who excel, advance and ultimately lead within the industry.”
Israel’s Druze community numbers around 150,000 people, primarily residing in the Galilee and the Carmel region. In recent years, Druze women in Israel have experienced notable advancements in education and employment, reflecting significant societal shifts within the community. Notably, Druze are better represented in higher education than Druze men, though many study in traditional fields like education and remain underrepresented in STEM fields. While the employment rate for Druze women has seen a substantial increase, rising from 21.2% in 2010 to 40.2% in 2022, they remain very underrepresented in tech.
Daliyat al-Karmel, the largest Druze town in Israel, is home to a deeply traditional society where women face specific barriers to higher education and career advancement. “We can’t leave the village to attend university because it is mixed gendered. We also can’t drive, so there are many obstacles,” says Kayouf. As a result, employment opportunities are typically limited to local, low-paying jobs in retail or education, and the high-tech industry - Israel’s economic engine - has remained largely out of reach.
One of the answers to these challenges was to build a tech hub in Daliyat al-Karmel where the women could work remotely from tech companies. The hub provides a dedicated space where women can work in a culturally sensitive environment, allowing women to work in high-tech without having to leave their communities or compromise cultural norms. The hub enables them to pursue careers while remaining close to home.
Rami Schwartz, Managing Director of Portland Trust Israel, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting economic development, has been working to accelerate this change. “In these challenging times, we see more than ever the importance of strengthening Israel's social and economic resilience,” Schwartz says. “The Druze community is an integral part of Israeli society, and its integration into the high-tech industry is both an economic necessity and a social value.”
Schwartz first met Alsheikh and 14 other religious Druze women in the village of Isfiya in 2018. “They were highly educated and incredibly talented, but completely stuck,” he recalls. “They had no opportunities, earning minimum wage jobs. Meanwhile, we’re outsourcing jobs abroad instead of investing in these communities. If we can hire front-end developers in Bulgaria and Romania, why not here?”
That realization led to the Portland Trust’s support and partnership with the Lotus Association and the program’s launch in 2019. Kayouf participated in the very first in 2019 in Daliyat al-Karmel where she and ten other girls participated in a rigorous full-stack development course. “It was eight months long, five days a week, and very intensive,” Maha recalls. “At first, we didn’t fully believe it would work. There were many voices around us saying it wasn’t possible, but we fought.”
As an only child of a single mother in a traditional home, she carried significant responsibility. “My mother is religious and doesn’t work. My grandparents lived with us, and I was supporting the whole family while studying.”
The results of her hard work were transformative. After completing the bootcamp, she and five others were hired by Amdocs - the first company to take a chance on the nascent program. “It was extremely moving to get that first job offer,” Maha says. “I started in the support team, but we proved ourselves and moved into R&D. It was a huge change - from our small village to working with teams from all over the world.” Today she works remotely from the Lotus hub or from her home in Isfiya.
Six years later, the program is well-known both within the Druze community as well as the tech industry for providing employer-tailored training and job placement, matching highly skilled and highly motivated candidates to roles that need to be filled.
“We sit with CEOs, understand exactly what they need, and update our syllabus accordingly,” Schwartz explains. “It’s not just about training - it’s about making sure businesses see the value in hiring these women.”
Since its inception over 100 women have participated in the program, with graduates securing jobs as software developers, and partnerships with 14 leading high-tech companies, including Amdocs, Radcom and Nova, Alsheikh says. “We are proving that diversity is not just a social value but also a business advantage - employers who recruit from Lotus gain high-quality talent with true commitment and excellence.”
At first, acceptance within the Druze community was uncertain. Religious leaders were cautious, and families worried about the implications of women entering the workforce. But as the program gained momentum, it won critical support. “We invited all of the religious leaders to see what we were doing, to get their blessing,” Maha explains. “They came, they listened, and they understood that this was necessary.”
Despite the success, challenges remain. The Israeli tech sector has been hit hard in recent years, first by a global slowdown in 2022, then by the internal unrest over the government’s attempted judicial overhaul in 2023, and most recently by the war since October 7. “There are 21,000 people looking for work in tech right now,” Schwartz adds. “If some groups were already struggling, it’s even worse now. But for the Druze community, there’s actually an increasing interest in tech training. More and more women in particular want to join.”
At the same time, he’s also noticed a shift in how the tech industry views hiring from the Druze community. “There’s a sense that people want to hire Druze,” Schwartz notes. “They see their service in the IDF, their dedication, and they want to support them. But there aren’t enough with the necessary qualifications yet. That’s the gap we are closing.”
Today, in addition to the high-tech hub in Daliyat al-Karmel where 100 Druze women work, Lotus is now launching the sixth cohort, expanding beyond the initial villages to include participants from across the Druze community, including the Golan Heights.
For Kayouf, the journey isn’t over. Now a senior developer, she plans to become a software architect. “We grew up in an environment where we have to appreciate every moment that we’re at work,” Maha says. “The change we’ve brought to the community is huge.”
