Breaking News English

Times are for women in Saudi Arabia’s lingerie shops. From today, only women will be able to work sales assistants. This follows a made by King Abdullah in June 2011. An attempt to Saudi women to work in lingerie stores three years ago failed complaints from top clerics, who said it was un-Islamic. The new law comes after a Facebook campaign women who for decades have been embarrassed by having to with male store clerks. Many women preferred to and buy their underwear overseas than reveal their personal body sizes to men. Samar Mohammed told the BBC that she would often buy the size “because I was sensitive about explaining what I wanted to a man”.

Another for implementing the new law is that it will create to 40,000 jobs for Saudi women. A Ministry of Labor official stressed to the 7,300 shop owners affected that saleswomen must be Saudi citizens. Any store foreign women will face penalties and . The kingdom's top religious leader Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Aziz al-Asheikh has shop owners that employing women is a " and prohibited by Islamic Sharia law". He said a lot of lingerie was by men for their wives, so the new regulation makes things . He stated: “A female employee standing to face with a male customer without modesty or shame can lead to .” The ban on male staff will also start in cosmetics shops from July.