Women Seek Exclusive Driving Club

Tuesday, 03 July 2007
By Khozaima Al-Attas

JEDDAH Mayor Adel Fakeeh was taken off-guard Monday when about 150 women, both students and workers, asked him to approve a special driving club for women where they can learn driving to deal with emergencies.

They also sought his support for reactivating the Labor Ministry decision to limit the jobs in lingerie shops to saleswomen.
Fakeeh expressed his reservation about these demands on grounds that their implementation doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the mayoralty.

The role of the mayoralty is limited to granting a piece of land for the construction of the club once the authorities concerned approve the proposal.

Driving debate has been raging in the Kingdom ever since King Abdullah left open the possibility that women may be allowed to drive.

Information Minister Iyad Madani at the Jeddah Economic Forum last year said there was nothing in the law preventing women from obtaining a license.

"There is nothing in the law that prevents women from applying for a driver's license," he said.

As far as reserving jobs for women in lingerie shops is concerned, the deadline to replace salesmen with saleswomen was postponed last year for an undetermined period.

Labor Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi made this decision following a representation by shop owners that they cannot meet the requirements of the Cabinet order within the specified deadline.

The Cabinet had set June 20, 2006, as the deadline to replace salesmen with saleswomen at all lingerie shops. The deadline to hire women in abaya shops and women-exclusive garment stores was June 9, 2007.

The Cabinet took the decision last June and businesses were given a year to prepare for implementation.

Statistics show that there are around 49 shopping malls and centers in Jeddah with around 247 shops to sell women's wears, 38 percent of the shops are for lingerie with only 15 percent of women sellers from the estimated number 879 employees.

The group of women, which met Adel Fakeeh Monday, also asked for the construction of playgrounds and sport clubs exclusively for women at the beach.

They also suggested construction of public libraries fully devoted to women.

They asked the mayor to open special sections in the mayoralty for women to enable them to follow their transactions themselves.

Feekeh revealed that the mayoralty's next budget will include allocations for securing jobs to Saudi women. The mayoralty will also open a special department to serve businesswomen.

He said the mayoralty has devoted Monday and Wednesday to serve women to follow up their transactions until a special section for women services is ready next year.