Muslim clerics’ anger. Don’t they understand that Islam honors women?
If Islam is the religion of peace, tolerance, and equality that apologists in the West make it out to be, one thing is certain: it is also the religion that fails more miserably than any other to inculcate its true teachings in its adherents.
From The Telegraph, with thanks to Bryce:
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).