First floor: Ladies lingerie -- and male sales clerks

In Saudi Arabia, except for a few renegades, lingerie is sold to women by male sales clerks. And the sales clerks are not from Saudi Arabia. The Emirate Economist has covered this story for several years; the posts can be found under the lingerie label.

Here, is the latest report from the BBC:

Reem Asaad, an economics professor from Jeddah, organised the boycott through her Facebook page, as public protests are illegal in Saudi Arabia.
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Parts of Saudi society are still very traditional and do not like the idea of women working - even if they are just selling underwear to each other.

Because of the strict segregation laws barring physical contact between the sexes, women also cannot be properly measured for their underwear.

Other reports:

Saudi women to boycott lingerie shops with male staff
AFP - ‎JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi women angry at being forced to buy intimate clothes from male sales clerks were urged on Saturday to begin a two-week boycott ...

Saudi campaign against 'manned' lingerie shops - paper
ArabianBusiness.com - ‎BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN: The campaigners expect a minimum of 40000 women participating in the boycott. A fresh ...

'Manned' lingerie shops targeted
Arab News - Abdul Ghafour I - ‎Feb 12, 2010‎
JEDDAH: The second phase of a yearlong campaign to get rid of men who work as sales clerks in lingerie shops has commenced with activists calling for a ...

The Takeaway interviewed Professor Asaad. So does the BBC. Rana Jad is a 20-year-old student at Dar al-Hikma Women's College, and one of Reem Asaad's finance students:

"Girls don't feel very comfortable when males are selling them lingerie, telling them what size they need, and saying 'I think this is small on you, I think this is large on you'. He's totally checking the girls out!"