Using colourful bras donated by employees at Victoria’s Secret, a group of 26 mostly Saudi women completed the first course of its kind to be offered in the kingdom — how to fit, stock and sell underwear.
The organisers hope the training will help boost a campaign to lift the ban on women selling underwear in the kingdom.
The graduates held a small ceremony at a college in the western seaport of Jeddah yesterday, capping 40 hours of instruction during which they learned to overcome their embarrassment at doing bra fittings, deal with customer complaints and display the stock in an appealing manner.
“'It was a beautiful experience,” said Faten Abdo, a 32-year-old coordinator in the offices of a lingerie company. “The most shocking thing for me was the bra sizes,” she added. “We didn’t know how to get proper measurements before.”
The 10-day course comes three months after a group of Saudi women launched a campaign to boycott lingerie stores until they employ women. Almost all the stores in the kingdom are staffed by men. The only exceptions are a few women-only boutiques, some of them inside popular shopping centres.
The restrictions are ironic in a country that goes to great lengths to segregate the sexes. Men and women, for instance, who are not close relatives cannot stand in the same line at fast-food outlets.
But those pushing for saleswomen in lingerie stores say they were tired of discussing intimate details with male staff and enduring their scrutiny when they ask for a particular cup size.
Their aim is to push for implementation of a law that has been on the books since 2006 which says only female staff can be employed in women’s apparel stores.
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