Saudi in crackdown on offending lingerie shops

Saudi Arabia has launched a crackdown against its lingerie shops which failed to replace all its salesmen with local women in line with a royal decision to feminise jobs in this lucrative industry.

Newspapers said inspectors from the ministry of labour have been given authority to shut down any shop found to be violating the decision, which was issued in late 2011.

The ministry has given hundreds of thousands of lingerie shops a four-month deadline to dispose of their male workers and employ Saudi women but many of them complained the deadline is short.

 “This decision was issued by the highest authority in the country and must be respected…we have given these shops more than four months to comply,” said Fahd Al Takheefi, the ministry’s assistant undersecretary for development.

 “The deadline is enough and any shop found violating the decision will be shut down….male workers at those shops will also be punished as they have been given enough time to switch jobs.”

The decision in October is part of an ongoing drive by the largest Arab economy to find jobs for its fast-growing citizens and it follows a campaign by Saudi women last year to replace salesmen with ladies.

The kingdom, the world’s oil powerhouse, was due to enforce that decision in June 2011 but decided to extend the deadline for eight months at the request of lingerie shop owners who argued that they need more time to replace all their male employees.

Officials have said they aim to create nearly 1.5 million jobs for national women through the enforcement of that decision, which also affects women clothes shops at a later stage.

In a letter entitled “important and urgent,” the Riyadh chamber of commerce and industry told all lingerie shops businesses in late 2011 to be ready to start replacing salesmen with Saudi women.

The letter also asked those shops to provide the chamber with details of all jobs available for Saudi women, work timings and job functions.

The chamber said its request is in line with a decision by King Abdullah to “restrict jobs at lingerie shops to Saudi women.”

The decision, which has been approved by the Saudi cabinet, followed an intensive campaign by local women demanding the replacement of salesmen with women at all lingerie shops in the conservative Muslim nation. 

The campaign, which was launched in the local media and Facebook, was dubbed “enough embarrassment” and was supported by many Muslim scholars, intellects and other prominent male personalities.

Saudi Arabia is suffering from relatively high unemployment rate because of a rapid growth in its indigenous population and low economic growth in some years. Another factor is the reluctance of the private sector to hire Saudis as it prefers cheaper and more skilled foreign labour.

Official data showed the joblessness rate stood at 10.5 per cent at the start of 2011 but the rate among women was far higher, standing at 26.6 per cent.

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