JEDDAH, 7 August 2005 — Three government administrations are coordinating their efforts to begin surveying the job opportunities available for women in women’s retail stores. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce would be cooperating to conduct the survey and register all the stores selling women’s apparel and determine the fines to be imposed on them if they do not employ Saudi women and the mechanism for enforcing the system.

Saudi women interested in working in these stores will be provided with training before they are to enter this field starting next year. The Ministry of Labor had announced two months ago that shops selling women’s items would be restricted to employing Saudi women only as part of its efforts at providing more job opportunities for Saudi women. Stores selling lingerie have a year to begin hiring, training and fully employing Saudi women. These are the stores on streets, in shopping centers and in department stores. The following year, stores selling abayas and women’s ready-to-wear clothes are expected to comply with the new system.

The women can receive training in sales through programs provided by the Human Resources Development Fund, the National Organizing for Joint Training, the Council for Saudi Chambers and private women’s training centers. The Riyadh Chamber of Commerce said last week that employing women in stores selling women’s items would be according to Shariah regulations, reported Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News. These regulations include preparing the work environment in these stores in terms of being concealed from outside view, not allowing mixing between men and women and to have separate doors, which can be controlled from the inside, for the stores and departments.

“The Jeddah Chamber is in the process of assigning a consulting office to conduct the survey and field study, which would probably start after the summer, to determine the number of stores selling women’s items and the appropriate salaries and benefits,” said a source at the business sector support department at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He said that the actual number of stores is probably four times the number of businesses registered with the chamber and it is important to evaluate the mechanism for implementing the system.

“We are starting with lingerie stores, which would be mandatory to employ women in them starting next year, because it is the most private item for women and many women would feel much comfortable buying from another woman. Once that experience is successful we can apply it to the other stores,” he said. As for preparing the work environment, he said that the main thing is providing security at the door and that they would not impose any changes to the layout and décor of the store because many business owners, especially small ones, had complained of the extra costs they would have to pay for accommodating saleswomen.

However, with regards to department stores that sell different items including women’s under the same roof, he said that this issue is being studied and perhaps these stores would need to make some arrangements. “Most of these stores are large enough and financially able to make the changes and whatever cost they are going to pay would be made up for by employing women who are a cheaper labor force than men,” he said. The Khadija bint Khowailid Center for Businesswomen at the JCCI would probably provide some kind of training program in cooperation with the businesses to determine their needs. The Khadija Center also has a database of unemployed women and their qualifications for the businesses to benefit from.