Saudi Arabia Bans Men From Working In Lingerie Stores

A new Post "Saudi Arabia Bans Men From Working In Lingerie Stores" was written on the January 2, 2012 at 1:49 pm on "Textile Global - Textile and Fashion News".

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia said Monday it will begin
enforcing a law that allows only females to work in women's lingerie
and apparel stores, despite disapproval from the country's top cleric.

The 2006 law banning men from working in female apparel and cosmetic
stores has never been put into effect, partly because of view of
hard-liners in the religious establishment, who oppose the whole idea
of women working where men and women congregate together, like malls.

Saudi women – tired of having to deal with men when buying
undergarments – have boycotted lingerie stores to pressure them to
employ women. The government's decision to enforce the law requiring
that goes into effect Thursday.

The country is home to Islam's holiest site in the city of Mecca and
follows an ultra-conservative form of the religion known as Wahhabism.

The kingdom's religious police, under the control of the Commission
for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, enforce Saudi
Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam, which prohibits unrelated men
and women from mingling. Women and men in Saudi Arabia remain highly
segregated and are restricted in how they are allowed to mix in
public.

The separation of men and women is not absolute. Women in Saudi Arabia
hold high-level teaching positions in universities and work as
engineers, doctors, nurses and a range of other posts.

The strict application of Islamic law forced an untenable situation in
which women, often accompanied by uncomfortable male relatives, have
to buy their intimate apparel from men behind the counter.

Over the past several weeks, some women have already begun working in
the stores. Although the decision affects thousands of men who will
lose their sales jobs, the Labor Ministry says that over 28,000 women,
many of them South Asian migrants, have already applied for the jobs.

Saudi's Arabia's most senior cleric, Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, spoke
out against the Labor Ministry's decision in a recent sermon, saying
it contradicts Islamic law.

"The employment of women in stores that sell female apparel and a
woman standing face to face with a man selling to him without modesty
or shame can lead to wrongdoing, of which the burden of this will fall
on the owners of the stores," he said, urging store owners to fear God
and not compromise on taboo matters.

Also on HuffPost:

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Saudi Arabia Bans Men From Working In Lingerie Stores

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