She almost gave up on her hijab bodysuit. Then a Dubai jury handed her $25,000 for it.
In 2019 she looked in the mirror and thought, this isn't me. By 2022 she was holding a $25,000 check in Dubai. In between, she almost walked away.
In the summer of 2019, Alizar Tawil had been wearing the hijab for ten years. One morning she looked in the mirror at the outfit she had put together and didn't recognize herself.
“I stood in front of the mirror looking at my outfit and thought: this isn't me. A mid-hijab crisis.”
Alizar Tawil, Letter from the Founder
Three years later she would be standing on a stage in Dubai, holding a check for $25,000. In between, she nearly walked away from the whole thing.
Five pieces, every morning
Alizar was raised in the West and came to Islam as an adult. Her style was streetwear, especially Japanese street style: expressive and layered. Wearing the hijab meant making that style modest, and the only way she found to do it was to build every outfit on the same stack.
“Every look needed the same five things: a long sleeve shirt, a turtleneck, an underscarf to stop the hijab slipping, the scarf itself, and pins to hold it all together. It worked. It also took a long time. Every morning.”
Alizar Tawil, Letter from the Founder
The look was never the hard part. The time it took to get there was.
The pattern in the sketchbook
Inspired to start a brand of her own, she began sketching designs. As the sketches piled up, she noticed every one of them rested on the same foundation: a single layer, a clean high neck joined to an undercap. Then came the question that turned into a company.
“What if one piece could do the job of all five, and make any outfit instantly modest?”
Alizar Tawil, Letter from the Founder
She found nothing like it on the market, so she made it herself, and patented it. In January 2020, she launched RUUQ.
Three strangers on American TV
The first big test came that December. Alizar pitched RUUQ on 2 Minute Drill, the business show hosted by David Meltzer, to a panel with no connection to modest fashion at all. She won against three other entrepreneurs. The episode aired on January 29, 2021, on Bloomberg TV and Amazon Prime Video.
“These guys who have nothing to do with women, much less Islam, much less hijab… That's what made it real for me. That's when I knew it wasn't a small-time project anymore.”
Alizar Tawil, to Jordan News
It was the push she needed to take RUUQ full time.
Then she almost walked away
By 2022, a few months before the biggest stage of her career, she was ready to give RUUQ up.
“There were many times, on this journey, I wanted to walk away from RUUQ. But every time I thought about it, I thought about you. The messages. ‘A literal lifesaver.’ ‘Finally someone gets it.’”
Alizar Tawil, on Instagram
Her family stepped in. They lent her CA$30,000, about US$25,000 at the time, to keep the business going. Remember that number.
200 startups. One stage in Dubai.
That year, more than 200 women-led businesses from 15 countries applied to the TiE Women competition. Alizar won the Levant round against nine other startups, in front of a jury of Adel Sajan, managing director of Danube Properties and founder of Danube Home; Rasha Manna, general manager of Flat6Labs; and Saeed Alnofeli, director of in5.
In October 2022 she took the Spotlight Stage at GITEX Global in Dubai for the MENA final, against four more finalists. The jury included Sima Ganwani Ved, founder of Apparel Group, the retail company behind hundreds of stores across the Gulf.
Watch the pitch
RUUQ won. The prize: $25,000, equity-free, from e& capital. The same amount her family had lent her to keep going.
“Subhanallah, it does not escape me that the amount that I borrowed from my family is the exact same amount that I won at GITEX. For that to just materialize, for me, it was just such a miracle! It just gave me that assurance to keep going.”
Alizar Tawil, to Entrepreneur Middle East
So what did the judges actually see?
The answer to the question in her sketchbook. Remember the five pieces?
Long sleeve shirtTurtleneckUnderscarf- The scarf itself
Pins
One patented piece, the Hijab Bodysuit: the undercap sewn into a high neck, sleeves to the wrist, a snap at the bottom so nothing rides up. Put it on, add the scarf, and walk out the door. It works under anything, from any store.
“One piece replaced five. The morning got shorter.”
Alizar Tawil, Letter from the Founder
The bodysuit that won in Dubai, in Onyx and Ivory
Two long sleeve Hijab Bodysuits. The two colors that go under everything.