JEDDAH, 17 July 2006 — The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has rejected accusations that commission members were behind the sacking of 69 women employees at a cosmetics and perfumes chain, according to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
In an official statement, the commission denied being involved in the firing of women employees who worked in various Gazzaz stores across Jeddah. All that the members of the commission did was write down their observations about the nature of the women’s job in the stores, the statement said, adding that the members did describe the women as appearing in an immodest way in front of men.
Regarding the charge, Reem Hasan, a worker at Gazzaz’s Al-Hamra branch, said, “The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice came to our shop once. We were wearing Islamic clothes and did not have any makeup on us despite the fact we work in a cosmetic shop. We did not look indecent as they claim and we definitely did not deserve to lose our jobs.”
An official from Gazzaz said that the company applied the Labor Ministry decision to employ women at women’s shops.
“The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice made a surprise visit at one of our branch shops. All women were in Hijab and were wearing decent clothes. But the commission issued a decision ordering us to close down our shops within three days,” he said. “When we objected they said either we close down the shops or they will settle the matter by taking all the girls by force to their cars,” he said, adding that the Ministry of Labor began investigating this issue.
Another source at Gazzaz said the commission is against the idea of employing women in beauty shops. The commission regards this as gender mixing because women are supervised in the first three months on their jobs by male supervisors.
“They said that they were looking immodest. I do not know whether they mean the workers or the pictures of women on the walls. From what I know problems started when we fired two women who reported to the commission that there were bad things happening at our stores,” said the source.
The source added that it was unfair that 69 employees get fired just because of two women employees. He said, “These women were serious about work; they loved their job and were more religious than the men.”
