Women have once again demanded that fellow women replace men in marketing and sales of women's lingerie in Saudi Arabia. In a country where strict Islamic rules are applied and segregation between the two genders is strictly observed, yet male salesmen still sell entirely feminine products such as lingerie, many women are extremely uncomfortable to see total strangers displaying feminine wears before them. “I would feel more comfortable in selecting the products of my choice if the person behind the counter were a woman,” said a Saudi businesswoman who wished to be identified only as Jawhara, who came to Dammam to buy evening garments. “In this way, I'll have more freedom to check and go over feminine things such as underwear.” And so would another woman, who only wished to be identified as Umm Abdurrahman, who spoke to the Saudi Gazette at a shopping mall in Dammam. “I feel very uneasy to ask a salesman for the right fit for my undergarments,” said Umm Abdurrahman. “So, I usually just pick the ones which I immediately feel are right for me.” She said it would be nice to have saleswomen attending women's shops, so that women can feel free to ask them for specific sizes and materials without embarrassment. Umm Abdurrahman further said that in many other countries, women's shops are manned and managed by women, adding that she finds it is extremely odd that particularly in Saudi Arabia, where male-female segregation is strictly enforced, this is not the case. Women also criticized the use of mannequins in marketing women's wear. Umm Mohammed, a third shopper at the same mall, said mannequins being displayed dressed up in underwear and other accessories are shameful for women. “We walk around covered from head to toe, and yet our undergarments are showcased on these mannequins,” said Umm Mohammed. “It is very embarrassing for us to walk by these shops with our adolescent sons.” Fathima, an expatriate from the Egyptian city of Alexandria, accompanied her husband to Dammam a few months ago. She said she was surprised to see men selling lingerie in Saudi Arabia. “I was of the notion that men will not be allowed to even enter the lingerie shops,” she said, “but I was surprised to see that it was actually salesmen who handle strictly women's wears, like lingerie and underwear. I wonder, too, why the strict male-female separation rules are not applied here.” The Saudi Gazette found that very few shops within shopping malls in Dammam have saleswomen selling women's wears. It is also noticeable that the few shops with saleswomen behind the counters are making brisk sales, compared with shops managed by salesmen. Women in the Kingdom have long been demanding that saleswomen should run shops selling products strictly for them, so that they can freely purchase the products of their choice. So far, however, authorities have not yet enforced strict rules that ban men from working in these shops. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry had earlier ruled that only women will be allowed to sell women's wears. __
