In Ramallah, Palestine, Tawazon a startup the provides meditation tools in Arabic, was founded in 2019. The startup app provides its users with short reflective meditations that last between five to ten minutes, all in Arabic. “We are the first meditation app directed in the Arabic language and entirely based on scientific research,” says Suna Zoabi Othman, founder and CEO of Tawazon.

The app helps its users relieve anxiety, stress and improves the quality of their sleep. In addition to meditations for adults, it also offers the largest meditation library for children in Arabic, divided according to the psychological age group for young people, in addition to a special library for those suffering from post-traumatic stress.

The startup expanded to Abu Dhabi after winning the HUB71 competition and obtaining seed funding from an innovation fund. Additionally, it is supported by the Palestinian Development Company.

The startup is making meditation accessible to the Arabic world. Suna Zoabi Othman tells WAYA that she sat on the idea for a year before launching. “Tawazun was an idea that developed for a year before it turned into the final product. I got to learn about mindful meditation while driving to work for at least 3 hours every day, and through audiobooks and TED talks,” she says. “One of the conversations was about mindfulness meditation, and I liked the idea. I decided to do my own research to understand more about brain activity before, during, and after meditation. I realized that by providing this tool through Tawazon, we could bring about positive change in emotional intelligence and the ability to better understand the feelings of oneself and others,” she adds.

Othman saw an opening in the market where Arabic content for meditiation was needed and filled in that gap. The application is available in app stores, and provides free and paid monthly and yearly subscription services.

Tawazon’s founders hope to expand, grow their team, reach more users, develop the content and technology used in the application, and obtain new investment.