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.
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. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more
