Until now most lingerie shops had male assistants only, leading to complaints that assistants often tried to guess customers' bra sizes by staring hard at their abayas, the long gowns worn by Saudi women in public.
King Abdullah, who has pledged to broaden access to education and jobs for women in Saudi Arabia since coming to the power in 2005, said from now on some jobs would be reserved for women only – including working in lingeries shops, the Telegraph reports.
A group of professional women earlier set up a Facebook campaign, "Enough Embarrassment" demanding a change to the practice.
They pointed out that Labour Ministry guidelines had already demanded a shift to women-only lingerie stores in 2005, without result.
But now, with the change made in the law women feel their problems have been addressed and they would not be embarrassed anymore.
"From now, embarrassment will end. We thank the king. He felt our problem," said one of the campaigners.
