More women inspectors needed for Jeddah’s 3,000 women’s shops

A senior city official has called on government to provide 50 women inspectors to help monitor 3,000 licensed women’s shops in the city.
Arwa Al-Aama, vice mayor at Jeddah Municipality’s information technology department for women affairs, said that the current 19 inspectors are not enough to check whether these shops are complying with the law.
There were previously only 1,400 shops employing and catering for women. However, with only women now being employed at lingerie and accessory shops, this number has doubled to 3,000 shops.
In the past women inspectors uncovered 1,600 unlicensed shops, Al-Aama told a local newspaper.
She said the current 19 inspectors are divided into teams, consisting of two members each and one team leader, to cover 13 areas.
Al-Aama said her request for more inspectors was turned down. She has made another request and has yet to receive a response.
She stressed that job creation was complicated and needed the input of the secretariat of Jeddah, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labor.
She said more inspectors will be needed every year because women are increasingly entering the workplace.