Saudi Arabia's labor ministry declared on Sunday new regulations regarding women working at lingerie and cosmetics shops to be exclusive of female workers. Men will not be allowed inside these stores, according to the decisions. Large department stores will be excluded from the decision based on the separation of males and females in the concerned departments. Saudi female workers will have to register with the labor office and their employers will have to register their pay role of each month. Male workers currently are employed at lingerie and underwear shops in the conservative Gulf kingdom. The move specifies workers' age to be a minimum of 20-years-old and maximum 35-years-old. Saudi's ministry of labor said at a press conference held on Sunday that lingerie shops would be given 6 months to apply the new regulations and cosmetic shops will have a year. The ministry also emphasized that female workers must adhere to the Islamic dress code and their work uniform, if it exists. The ministry also added new regulations concerning female workers at factories. The regulations specifies that a woman cannot begin work before 6 am and to not stay after 5pm. Saudi women face many obstructions in their daily lives including most notably the fact that they are not allowed to drive by law, are only allowed to start a small number of businesses, besides the dress restriction that prohibits women from publicly appearing without the head scarf (Hijab). Saudi women rights activists have fought in the past to change these laws but Saudi's patriarchal society gives little weight to their voices, yet it seems that social networking websites have given Saudi women a much needed space to express their views that usually clashes with the conservative nature of Saudi society. Saudi activists launched a campaign titled “I will drive myself” on the social networking website Facebook on June 17. The campaign brought about a debate within society. The campaign was fueled by the arrest of a Saudi woman, Manal al-Sharif, who was detained for driving her car in the Saudi city of al-Khabar. Al-Sharif was detained for 9 days and charged with inciting women to drive after she posted a video online encouraging women to take the wheel. 7,000 women had joined the online call and a larger number of men joined in opposing the campaign to stop women from driving. Women who tried to follow on the lead of al-Sharif were also arrested. BM
