JEDDAH: Some government officials have urged the Ministry of Interior to ensure that all government departments are aware of licensed services at beauty salons.

The request comes following the banning of massage services for women by some government officials at salons, spas and hotels, local media reported on Sunday.

The letter to the ministry emphasizes the need to protect such services and business activities, so long as they have been properly licensed via official channels, describing such activities as “rights that are projected by laws and regulations.”

“In the event of a violation, the guilty should be penalized in accordance with relevant regulations, without impacting the provision of services to citizens and residents,” the letter reads.

Reports published in June 2015 had pointed to the requests by businesswomen in the beauty industry to the municipalities to reverse the ban on massage centers and female sports centers. Many businesswomen had said they suffered tremendous losses after having invested heavily to establish such businesses and purchased “very expensive” equipment.

Businesswomen were forced to close down their centers and provide home services to customers to cover employee salaries. The municipalities first approved such businesses and then issued a ban order, the report said.

Jawaher Al-Aql, head of the committee of women’s centers at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce, said the ban “prompted women to call for punishing only violators, rather than generalizing and penalyzing everyone in the sector, especially as this has forced women to turn to the black market to obtain the needed services.”