Lingerie shops told to hire women

Saudi Arabia has given its lingerie shops one month to replace their salesmen with Saudi women within a drive to find jobs for its fast-growing citizens and yield to complaints by embarrassed female customers.

In a letter entitled “important and urgent,” the Riyadh chamber of commerce and industry told all lingerie shops and other women clothes businesses to take measures to be ready to replace salesmen with Saudi women within one month.

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

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

“You are asked to take immediate procedures within one month to replace all salesmen with Saudi women…this decision affects mainly shops dealing in lingerie items, night dresses, abaya (gowns) and read made women clothes.”

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

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

In press comments, the campaign leader Fatima Qaroob said the drive had received strong support from many men on the grounds their wives or female relatives face an embarrassing situation when they shop for clothes.

“We have received massive support from both women and men because it has become unbearable and the situation has become shameful…...we hear shameful and embarrassing stories almost every day about our women when they go shopping for underwear…these stories make you either cry or laugh,” she said in a statement carried by Saudi newspapers.

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 in 2010 but the rate among women was far higher, standing at 26.6 per cent.

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