Coimbatore: Every successful person has a story of struggle and when it is a woman, the barriers to be broken are even more and sometimes tougher. That is what 40 women entrepreneurs said at the Iconic Women Summit held by We Magazine here on Saturday.A writer, an architect, a photographer, a traveller, an industrialist and many other successful entrepreneurs shared a piece of their life trying to inspire others to achieve something magical.Shifa Arshad, who hails from a conservative Muslim family, had to fight even the dress code. “My uncles would come and tell my parents to teach me cooking and cleaning as that was what was expected from me. But I broke all barriers and decided to be someone else. I questioned every custom, ritual and practice. I followed my dreams and I have realised that if powerful women back other women, magic can happen,” she said. She is now a dentist, who started We Little, a preventive pediatric dentistry where children are taught things that will protect their teeth.The struggle of AR Tara Prasad was no less. A daughter of an artist with no money to even complete her education, she had to skip school for a year, earn money and then she worked hard to become a successful architect. Today, she has started ‘Tasya’, an organisation through which she empowers women who are housewives and helps those who want to pursue their career. “We wanted to bridge this gap. The women at home feel, they do nothing and want to earn. The women at work have money, but need to take care of families. So, we brought them together to balance each other’s lives and both feel happy and empowered,” she said.Some had it tough balancing their work and family life such as Sasikala, an educationist, who gave her university exam the next day of her marriage and also wrote her exams when she had completed her nine months pregnancy period and two days past her due date.Mohana Sundari, managing director of Sharp Industries, is a successful entrepreneur today. But her story is as unique as it gets. Hailing from a conservative family, she was not even allowed to study in a co-education school. After her husband’s death in 2005, she had to take over the entire industry. “I had joined my husband after quitting my job at a city engineering college. Just when things were going well, I lost him. I knew I could either make it or break it and today I run an exclusive women’s unit,” she said.For Shobana Kumar of small difference, a writer and a poet, passion is something that is dearer than success and for Meenakshi Arvind, a traveller, no dream is small enough.Simran Kaur, a hardcore Punjabi who runs her own store, urged the women to not let marriage or any society define their roles. “I am unmarried, but am very happy. I had decided to make my parents proud of myself and when today they are called as Simran’s parents, I feel elated,” she said.Sumathi Srinivas of We Magazine said that each of these woman have a story that is as inspiring as it gets. “I was a homemaker and I made it big in the media industry. This is the 14th edition of the summit. I want other women to also step out. I want women to imbibe the right values and learn from successful women to make their journey easier,” she said.

Stay updated with all the Coimbatore Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.