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bigdurian
Joined: 05 Feb 2014
Posts: 401
Location: Flashing my lights right behind you!
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 Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 11:49 am Post subject: Just saw a woman....... |
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.......working on the fruit and veg in Carrefour, weighing and pricing items for customers.
This was in Qassim. How long has this been going on elsewhere?
A Thursday afternoon btw so quite busy.
Last edited by bigdurian on Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:25 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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currentaffairs
Joined: 22 Aug 2012
Posts: 828
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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| There are female cashiers in Carrefour in Dammam. |
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bigdurian
Joined: 05 Feb 2014
Posts: 401
Location: Flashing my lights right behind you!
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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I've seen female cashiers before in Riyadh, but only on a Friday morning. This was the first time I saw at the fruit and veg. And at a busy time too.
It's good. A sign of progress. Hopefully as it becomes more accepted culturally, women can move into other areas of employment too. |
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currentaffairs
Joined: 22 Aug 2012
Posts: 828
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Did you see them at a Carrefour in Riyadh? As it is a French company perhaps it is more willing to open up. Any females serving in other stores? |
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MENA_chica
Joined: 28 Sep 2014
Posts: 82
Location: Middle East
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| I've seen multiple female cashiers at Carrefour in Granada Mall, Riyadh on many occasions. |
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bigdurian
Joined: 05 Feb 2014
Posts: 401
Location: Flashing my lights right behind you!
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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| MENA_chica wrote: |
| I've seen multiple female cashiers at Carrefour in Granada Mall, Riyadh on many occasions. |
Yeah, and it was there that I came across them before, and I don't mean at the family checkouts, but every checkout had a woman.
Which was bizarre, because I didn't know what to do for a minute.
Today was my first fruit and veg experience though, and in Qassim of all places. |
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MENA_chica
Joined: 28 Sep 2014
Posts: 82
Location: Middle East
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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Bigdurian, I could understand your surprise, as I would have been to, considering how traditional and 'strict' Al Qassim is said to be. Certainly a pleasant and welcomed surprise  |
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bigdurian
Joined: 05 Feb 2014
Posts: 401
Location: Flashing my lights right behind you!
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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| MENA_chica wrote: |
| Bigdurian, I could understand your surprise, as I would have been to, considering how traditional and 'strict' Al Qassim is said to be. Certainly a pleasant and welcomed surprise |
I didn't know where to put my mango. |
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siologen
Joined: 25 Oct 2016
Posts: 336
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 6:50 am Post subject: re: wow... |
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MOD EDIT And here was little old me thinking Oh-man was as conservative as Saudi, but even in two of the backwater desert towns I worked in, female Omani checkout staff at two of the smaller supermarkets. In Carrefour in Seeb,female staff could always be seen. Can we take this as a sign of more "liberal" policies in Sowdy? On that note, I read something t'other day about how Jeddah is the most laid-back city of that place. Can women wear bikinis and men beach/board shorts, or am I way off the mark? Is there a possibility of easier access to a bottle of "scottish medicinal water"? What makes it more liberal than say Dammam, or Riyadh, I could imagine the latter being more closed and conservative due to location, but the coastal cities being more easygoing? Cheers all   |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:29 am Post subject: |
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| They were in supermarkets in Khobar when I left - and that was in 2011 ! |
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bigdurian
Joined: 05 Feb 2014
Posts: 401
Location: Flashing my lights right behind you!
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:54 am Post subject: Re: re: wow... |
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| siologen wrote: |
| MOD EDIT And here was little old me thinking Oh-man was as conservative as Saudi, but even in two of the backwater desert towns I worked in, female Omani checkout staff at two of the smaller supermarkets. In Carrefour in Seeb,female staff could always be seen. Can we take this as a sign of more "liberal" policies in Sowdy? On that note, I read something t'other day about how Jeddah is the most laid-back city of that place. Can women wear bikinis and men beach/board shorts, or am I way off the mark? Is there a possibility of easier access to a bottle of "scottish medicinal water"? What makes it more liberal than say Dammam, or Riyadh, I could imagine the latter being more closed and conservative due to location, but the coastal cities being more easygoing? Cheers all |
The thing with Jeddah is that it is an old city with a lot of history of foreigners travelling there due to proximity to Mecca etc. So the people are more used to foreigners and more open in their outlook.
Riyadh on the other hand is a new city, built as a power base for the ruling clan. If you look at the population changes in Riyadh over the past sixty years it is incredible. It only had 50,000 or so people in 1960, currently 6m, projected to hit ten in the next twenty years or so.
As for the bikinis, there are private beach areas in both Jeddah and Khobar where you can wear what you want. Public beaches you can forget it. Went to the rubbish tip AKA Half Moon Bay one time and all the women bathe in the sea in full abaya mode.
If you look at old photos of Khobar from the sixties, interestingly enough you can see American women walking round in the town with no abaya on. How times change.
The abaya itself comes from Iraq, and is not a Saudi thing. |
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bigdurian
Joined: 05 Feb 2014
Posts: 401
Location: Flashing my lights right behind you!
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:59 am Post subject: |
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| scot47 wrote: |
| They were in supermarkets in Khobar when I left - and that was in 2011 ! |
Think you're misunderstanding the point here. We're not talking about the family only checkouts, but about women on every checkout, like Carrefour Granada Mall does, which means contact and interaction with bachelors.
And like I said, yesterday I came across my first fruit and veg woman, which again, means contact with bachelors. |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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I see. Come to think of the ones I saw back then were at the family check-outs. I remember too when the job of check-out operators were given over to locals. Total chaos was predicted but after a few months things settled down.
What is next ? EFL teachers ? KFUPM has already started advertising for Saudi nationals to to teach English on Prep Year. Why not ? |
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cnthaiksarok
Joined: 29 Jun 2012
Posts: 288
Location: between a rock and a sandy place
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| Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:37 am Post subject: Re: re: wow... |
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| siologen wrote: |
| Can women wear bikinis and men beach/board shorts, or am I way off the mark? |
I see a fair amount of men wearing shorts in the city, outskirts and around the areas where there are beach entrances / public beaches, etc.
The tendency is to wear knee length, but I've notice shorter bathing suits as well.
Personally, I save it for inside the private beaches as I don't want any undue attention.
Women, as Durian said wear bikinis and swimsuits inside the private beaches.
Saudi and other women had been known to wear the same beachwear as their western counterparts (at one particular beach in Jeddah) as recent as 2 years ago, but since then it changed management and no Arabs are allowed as far as I can tell, unless they are invited by a western, card-carrying member (as opposed to a one-off western ticket buyer). |
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1chunk
Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 123
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| Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:12 am Post subject: |
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If it's happening in Qassim, then fair to say it's all over the Kingdom.
Not long ago, it wasn't allowed at all. Then someone finally noticed how absurd it was with men working in lingerie shops etc. During my period in Riyadh, I saw them at the Family checkouts only. That's probably changed.
At Carrefour Al Khobar, I saw them at the fruit counter but also doing some stock/price checking with little handheld devices. |
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