Mentioning Unmentionables in Saudi Arabia

The laws of Saudi Arabia are based on strict Sharia principles, which require genders to be segregated and forbid women from driving, traveling alone, and achieving the same professional status as men. Of course, the effects on civil rights are a total bummer, but perhaps the most awkward Sharia by-product has to do with lingerie. Strangely, almost unbelievably, most of the Saudis selling women’s underwear are men. And in a country where a man and woman dancing together is the Western equivalent of having anal sex in the middle of a nursery, many ladies find it uncomfortable to speak with a dude about panties and bras.

Saudi women have been protesting this situation for years—activist Reem Assaad, for instance, was the leader of a campaign to boycott lingerie shops that employed men. Last July, their demands were finally heard by King Abdullah, who gave knicker merchants six months to lay off their male employees. (The king’s decree also extended to cosmetics stores.)

This isn’t the first time officials tried to put the kibosh on men selling women’s undergarments. The labor ministry brought up the idea of banning lingerie salesmen three years ago, but for very stupid reasons it was opposed by the nation’s powerful clerics, who went so far as to issue a fatwa against women selling bras or lipstick. Women across the country protested the decision, culminating when a woman named Fatima Garoub launched a Facebook campaign called “Enough Embarrassment.”

Though the clergy remain opposed to the idea that a woman might be embarrassed by talking about bras and such with men, Abdullah stood by his decision, and the ministry of labor recently hired 400 inspectors to make sure the country’s lingerie sellers are complying with the new law.

While women in Saudi Arabia only recently won the right to vote and run for office (but can’t do so until 2015), and have far fewer employment opportunities than men, this small measure to make them comfortable under their abayas is certainly a step in the right direction.

Illustration by Grace Wilson