Storm In A 'D' Cup

Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh, has warned the kingdoms shop owners that employing women is a "crime and prohibited by Islamic sharia law" ....

Praying To Mecca or M&S?

..... but the King has apparently decided that on this issue he will bow to pressure from women's rights campaigners. So from this week, certain shops will not be allowed to employ men.

 

Of course this being an Islamic paradise on earth, all is not as it seems .... the King has only legislated that male employees be removed from 'lingerie shops', where conservative women were 'embarrassed' by having to give their bra and knicker sizes to male employees. He has also said that the ban is due to be extended to cosmetics shops from July 2012.

 

Even funnier is that in their efforts to stop women working (Shock, Horror!) so that they wouldn't develop any independence, Saudi men were happy for the majority of the male employees in these lingerie departments to be foreign men. These men were not even guaranteed to be Muslim. The decree is expected to cause 40,000 jobs to be lost to these men, but not necessarily create the same number for Saudi women, as its likely that it will be foreign women who take around half of these jobs because Saudi women wont be able to take the jobs (can't drive cars, need male chaperone, need male permission etc etc).

QURAN 4:34 – ‘Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient ’

However even this small 'victory' for women could be somewhat Pyrrhic, as it reinforces other aspects of the separation between women and men, and even the King is powerless to stop there being opposition from the religious police, and their backers .... one step forward, two steps back?