Saudi Arabian lingerie law ends
A campaign to end an anomaly under which only men could sell lingerie to women in Saudi Arabia has been won after direct intervention by the king.
Rules against "mingling" of the sexes at work in the kingdom, whose laws are based on a strict interpretation of Muslim Sharia, mean that most shops have male assistants only.
Until now that included lingerie shops, leading to complaints that assistants who tried to be helpful often tried to guess customers' bra sizes by staring hard at their abayas, the long all-enveloping gowns worn by Saudi women in public.
A group of professional women set up a Facebook campaign, "Enough Embarrassment" two years ago demanding a change to the practice and winning international attention. They pointed out that Labour Ministry guidelines had already demanded a shift to women-only lingerie stores in 2005, without result.
Fatwas by senior clerics against women serving on supermarket tills, a novelty attempted by one chain, did not help, despite campaigners pointing out that there was little difference between a man serving women customers and women serving male customers.
King Abdullah, who has pledged to broaden access to education and jobs for women in Saudi Arabia since coming to the throne in 2005, said from now on some jobs would be reserved for women only including working in lingeries shops. (clap)
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor.../8575638/Saudi-Arabian-lingerie-law-ends.html
A campaign to end an anomaly under which only men could sell lingerie to women in Saudi Arabia has been won after direct intervention by the king.
Rules against "mingling" of the sexes at work in the kingdom, whose laws are based on a strict interpretation of Muslim Sharia, mean that most shops have male assistants only.
Until now that included lingerie shops, leading to complaints that assistants who tried to be helpful often tried to guess customers' bra sizes by staring hard at their abayas, the long all-enveloping gowns worn by Saudi women in public.
A group of professional women set up a Facebook campaign, "Enough Embarrassment" two years ago demanding a change to the practice and winning international attention. They pointed out that Labour Ministry guidelines had already demanded a shift to women-only lingerie stores in 2005, without result.
Fatwas by senior clerics against women serving on supermarket tills, a novelty attempted by one chain, did not help, despite campaigners pointing out that there was little difference between a man serving women customers and women serving male customers.
King Abdullah, who has pledged to broaden access to education and jobs for women in Saudi Arabia since coming to the throne in 2005, said from now on some jobs would be reserved for women only including working in lingeries shops. (clap)
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor.../8575638/Saudi-Arabian-lingerie-law-ends.html
