Saudi Gazette Women are comfortably shopping and working in lingerie shops in all regions of the Kingdom for now they do not have the fear of being harassed. The assistant undersecretary for Development at the Ministry of Labor (MoL), Fahd Al-Takhifi, told Al-Watan daily that the number of shops violating the law that mandates feminizing of lingerie shops in the Kingdom have decreased. He also said that very few complaints have been made that involve intermingling of the sexes in lingerie shops in the presence of a male employee. A complete segregation of the sexes in all lingerie shops is an integral demand of the feminizing law as it ensures the privacy of women working in these stores and protects the women from harassment. “It is normal for some violations and obstacles to occur in the initial stages of the implementation of any new law. However, there has recently been a noticeable reduction in the number of lingerie shops caught violating the feminizing law. The law stipulates that no man whosoever, not even the business owner or trainer, is allowed to be present in the store's premises. Inspectors are routinely sent out on investigating trips to the various lingerie shops to make sure that business owners are abiding by the law,” said Al-Takhifi. As for the number of reported violations, Al-Takhifi said that he is not at liberty to reveal the exact numbers, but that the number is small. He has confirmed that the vast majority of the lingerie shops have been cooperative and are conforming to the female only rule. “To force business owners to comply to the complete feminizing of lingerie shops, the MoL enforces a number of punishments on any violating shop. In addition to the penalty fines, the ministry will also withdraw some special services that it provides shop owners, such as facilitating foreign visas so that the business can bring in expatriate workers, and other services. The penalties are carried out immediately and are incurred upon the business owner even if the violation was caught in only one of the shop's many branches. Inspections have been conducted ever since the deadline had passed and such visits will continue,” said Al-Takhifi. Last month, all lingerie shops in Riyadh had been visited by an official from the MoL,and the shops were categorized into conforming and non-conforming to the feminizing law. Stricter inspections and follow-up visits have been scheduled for those shops that had problems with completely feminizing their stores. __
