Eighteen lingerie stores in shopping centres located in east Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, have been shutdown by the Labour Ministry and the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, following failure of these shops to fulfil the Saudization conditions of employing only female staff, MENAFN-Arab News reported.
The new set of rules have been introduced for shops selling lingerie across Saudi Arabia, as the Labour Ministry recently inked a deal with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) to enhance employment opportunities for women in lingerie shops.
The new rules require that all shops selling lingerie or women’s accessories in the Kingdom should employ only Saudi women, and no man, including salesmen or accountants or workers from other departments of the shopping complex can gain access to such shops. Also, the women staff at these shops should dress modestly.
Ordering closure of the said 18 shops for non-compliance of rules, the Labour Ministry said it is serious about he new rules and lady officials would be visiting lingerie shops to check if all concerned shop-owners are adhering to the same or not, and would also seek Haia’s help to ensure compliance of the rules.
The Ministry said they are moving ahead in a systematic manner in this regard. First they enlightened the shop owners regarding the need for employing ladies staff, then they moved to imposing fines, barring computer services and issuing temporary closure notices, and finally, if all this does not work they order permanent closure.
All the Municipalities have been directed to issue temporary closure notices to shop owners not fulfilling the norms, and a toll free number has also been activated where general people can inform the Ministry if they notice any instance of non-compliance of the norms at any shop, it added.
The new rules also require that big shopping centres with several divisions should separate women’s sections through a 160 cm long partition, and the female workers may call Haia or police in case of any harassment at work by any customer or male worker.
