Sometimes there's "creeping Sharia." More often than not, though, it's just plain creepy Sharia, and this case certainly falls in the latter category. The unintended consequence of the complete ban on female sales clerks, issued to uphold Sharia's segregation of the sexes, actually led to a situation where women had to deal with unrelated men on a rather private matter. The original story for Time, in all its awkward glory, can be found here.
An update on this story. "Saudi Arabian lingerie law ends," by Richard Spencer for the Telegraph, June 14:
Rules against "mingling" of the sexes at work in the kingdom, whose laws are based on a strict interpretation of Muslim Sharia, mean that most shops have male assistants only.
Until now that included lingerie shops, leading to complaints that assistants who tried to be helpful often tried to guess customers' bra sizes by staring hard at their abayas, the long all-enveloping gowns worn by Saudi women in public.
... which would have eventually given rise to a Saudi bra brand, "Just Ain't My Size."
A group of professional women set up a Facebook campaign, "Enough Embarrassment" two years ago demanding a change to the practice and winning international attention. They pointed out that Labour Ministry guidelines had already demanded a shift to women-only lingerie stores in 2005, without result.
Fatwas by senior clerics against women serving on supermarket tills, a novelty attempted by one chain, did not help, despite campaigners pointing out that there was little difference between a man serving women customers and women serving male customers.
King Abdullah, who has pledged to broaden access to education and jobs for women in Saudi Arabia since coming to the throne in 2005, said from now on some jobs would be reserved for women only – including working in lingeries shops.
"From now, embarrassment will end," one of the campaigners, Fatima Garub, said. "We thank the king. He felt our problem."
Reem Asaad, a professor of finance in Jeddah who began the campaign for women assistants in 2008, said the new measures were part of an important drive to improve employment prospects for young Saudis. Many shop assistants are from abroad.
She added she had now officially ended her boycott of lingerie shops. “I have just bought my first bra for four years,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“And it was a woman who served me.”
Actually there are several twists to this, and the "non-compulsory order" to hire women only for lingerie shops can also be interpreted as enforcing strictness of the prohibition against gender-mixing in public.
A retail manager explains why in Arab News: "the number of customers decreased considerably, because only women were allowed to enter our shops"
As always in KSA nothing is initiated without abject appeals to the goodness and good intentions of the Royals, and followed by abject thanks and gratitude. This must be the rules of the game: be it lingerie shops or womens' right to drive, your loyalty is beyond question.
Meanwhile: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and 'Independent' newspaper's, Robert Fisk:
1.)
"Robert Fisk: I saw these brave doctors trying to save lives – these charges are a pack of lies"
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-i-saw-these-brave-doctors-trying-to-save-lives-ndash-these-charges-are-a-pack-of-lies-2297100.html
2.)
"Bahrain to sue Independent over 'defamatory' articles"
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/bahrain-to-sue-independent-over-defamatory-articles/s2/a544720/
King Abdullah has often been off the reservation when it comes to Islam, most likely because few men would argue his mild forays into apostasy. Though not a reformer in any real sense,he sometimes stumbles upon a correct answer. Well, as correct an answer as any Muslim can find.
"We thank the king. He felt our problem."
lol
@ Courreges W
lol! Nice one you caught there. Heh-heh.
Well, you know, it stood out.
And here come the puns!
Oh, there's nothing like the "king's mercy". In civilized countries, there are any number of ways to end this sort of "gender apartheid". But in the Saudi Kingdom, a woman has to rely on a man to end her humiliation.
Allah (who is male) is just and merciful.
How dreary and stifling the existence under Sharia is.
Saudi Arabia, drenched in oil riches for the royal family and assorted hangers on, must look to lingerie shops as a source of meaningful employment for Saudis not actually attached to the money pipes.
I guess trying to export their humdrum existence to non-Islamic countries provides a needed relief to their grey lives.
Imagine living in a country run by one extended family and their peculiar take on religion, always whatsoever the topic to be resolved having to declare your loyalty to both before, during and after in terms of immoderate joy and devotion.
As gaga as ever
I'm surprised that his majesty didn't recall how his ancestors guarded their harems, and decree that lingerie shops hire eunuchs.
I am left wondering if this rule could have been changed in a democratic arab country at this time.
We know the rules about women driving in Saudi Arabia. But what about other arab counties. I've never seen an image of a woman behind the wheel in ANY arab country but that could just be a media related phenomenon.
Why don't the male clerks just breastfeed from all the women customers? Then there wouldn't be a problem.
Why do they need bras, anyway?
Do you remember that in Somalia the Al-Shabaab sharia-pushers decided that wearing bras at all was un-Islamic? So, of course, they had to stop and inspect all the women, to see whether they were wearing bras or not, and to punish them if they were...
Dumbledore's Army wrote:
Do you remember that in Somalia the Al-Shabaab sharia-pushers decided that wearing bras at all was un-Islamic?
...........................
Yup. And I wouldn't be surprised if the next bunch of pious Jihadists in Somalia were to decide that since women who don't wear bras jiggle and so "incite" men, that bras will now be *required*.
And women caught on the ever-shifting border between the two rival Jihadists might be beaten, flogged, or stoned for wearing or not wearing a bra.
Not only is Shari'ah tyrannical and oppressive, but by its very nature it is irrational and frequently contradictory.