Saudi Lingerie Shops



(Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) Two years after a Ministry of Labor deadline to begin replacing male clerks with women in Saudi lingerie shops, one firm, the Nayomi lingerie chain, has taken action by opening two experimental "family only" stores. According to Nayomi store manager Sarah bint Sahal, issues have been encountered.

If they employ women sales staff, especially Saudi women, do their establishments need to be converted into “women-only” stores or can men enter them if accompanied by a female relative?

Will they have problems with the religious police if they go for the latter and have Saudi women sales clerks attending male customers?

Nayomi will be the first lingerie outlet to find the answers to these questions after trying the “women-only” model and encountered problems. Having a “women-only” retail space requires investment in structural alterations to the premises including eliminating one of the most important elements: An attractive storefront display that invites customers inside. Stores that cater only to women cannot have windows where people on the outside can see in.

“We found it really hard to attract costumers in an ‘women-only’ shop since we couldn’t display our merchandise on the storefront,” she said.

These “women-only” establishments also require a security guard to keep men out.

I confess to not understanding the complexities of the problems with female lingerie store clerks. It's fairly simple to me, fire the male clerks and hire female clerks. Problem solved.

But that's not to be since the apparent roots of the lingerie shop issue are buried in rules of Islam. It seems that one would have to be a Muslim scholar to understand.