Shams El Wazer CNN Google - These days, the biblical land of Sheba has an unlikely queen.
She's Amina al-Amrani -- a 57 year old, mother of seven, better known as Yemen's "Queen of Oranges."
Amina can't read or write but she's become an urban legend as one of the top wholesale fruit brokers in the country.
"I stood strong and persisted. I kept working and I kept trading and that's how I gained the experience," Amina al-Amrani said.
A self-made entrepreneur, Amina is one of eight licensed brokers in Sana'a's wholesale fruit market.
She sells almost 200 tons of fruit daily -- worth about a quarter of a million dollars -- but is hesitant to disclose her profits.
She has thirty men working for her and she's a broker for about 400 farmers around the country.
"Competition is tough; they're all men in this field. Because I'm a woman and I'm successful some people try to hassle me to drive me out of the market".
After 20 years in the business, she's made her mark.
In the mountains overlooking Sana'a Amina visits old clients and friends at the first farm she ever dealt with, back in 1983.
"I used to sell coral necklaces to the women in this family. One of them still owed me money, and she said that when the peaches ripen she'll sell them to pay me. I just took the peaches. When I sold them, I made a good profit. Then I kept coming back to buy more."
Even then she left an unforgettable impression.
Farmer Ali al-Tahuma said, "She's the first businesswoman I ever met. She's not like other women who just hide behind their veils."
Today Amina exports her fruits to countries around the Gulf as well as Egypt and Sudan, and she's attended agriculture conferences in places as varied as Germany and China.
In rural areas of Yemen it's estimated that over 80 percent of women work in agriculture, mostly doing unpaid manual labor on their families' farms.
In the formal economy, women still account for less than one quarter of the workforce.
Maha Ghaleb, director general of the Working Women's Directorate said: "We have to work on the mentality of people, on their perceptions of working women.
"Still the perception is not clear of working women, the role of working women, and the role of women in this society."
It's a conservative society. Many families still consider it inappropriate for women to work closely with men outside their family.
Amina says she owes her success mainly to her husband's support.
"It was very difficult because my family didn't accept it at all," she said.
"My mother screamed at me that I was shaming the family and my brothers didn't speak to me for four years."
Now Amina financially supports most of the family members who once ostracized her.
Maha Ghaleb says she's a role model for other Yemeni women.
"To tell them you can take the initiative even if you have nothing. Just have the motivation, just have in mind that you can do it, and you will do it."
In her home where she lives with her camera-shy husband and daughters, Amina proudly displays her picture with the Yemeni president.
She says she hopes her daughters will one day work with her, but only after completing their studies.
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