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| Arabia |
| Muslim clerics' anger delays Saudi plan to let women sell lingerie |
| 2006-05-16 |
| Saudi Arabia has postponed plans to replace male sales staff in lingerie shops with women. The move had been its first cautious attempt to bring more women into the work-place. But even minor reforms have incurred the wrath of ultra-conservative religious leaders, such as the Grand Mufti Shaikh Abdel-Aziz al-Sheikh, who has denounced them as "steps towards immorality and hellfire". In a country that requires women to cover up in public, and bans them from driving, shop assistants are invariably men - even in stores selling women's underwear and cosmetics. The kingdom's sole exceptions are the few all-female shopping centres. King Abdallah's government last year ordered lingerie shop owners to hire all-female sales staff by next month. In 2007, the policy was to have been extended to stores selling dresses and abayas (the black robes worn by women for modesty). The policy is being pushed by the Saudi labour minister, Ghazi Algosaibi, a former Saudi ambassador to Britain. But Mr Algosaibi has become a hate figure among puritanical Wahhabi clerics. In an audio message last month, Osama bin Laden said he was a leading "heretic" who should be killed. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #6 And now pictures of veiled women in media are prohibited. Acn't be seen, can't drive, can't votre, can't work, can't be recorded visually as ever having lived. Nice place SA. Looks like the recent reversal and withdrawl of images from media is a deparate plea to Osama to leave the "pious" alone. |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-05-16 19:37 |
| #5 Islamic Clerical Thongs™ bad visual.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-05-16 12:48 |
| #4 That's British, a5089. In American, we call them "garters." ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-05-16 12:41 |
| #3 Or to wear it, under their clerics robes? Damn, theses suspenders are becoming, aren't they? |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-05-16 09:16 |
| #2 JFM, you mis-spelled the word 'sell'. I believe it's spelled w-e-a-r. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-05-16 09:16 |
| #1 Clerics want to be the only ones allwoed to sell women's lingerie. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-05-16 09:11 |