And about time....

When I first arrived in Jordan I had two major problems...the first was that my luggage didn't arrive with me and the second problem being that I arrived with raging bronchitis and was housebound for the first few days.

Having no clothes my boyfriend at the time had to go out and forage for clothes and underwear...clothes was no problem...a few pairs of jeans, a couple of jumpers and a jacket (it was end of November so perishing cold)....however, he was very apprehensive about going into an underwear shop and buying underwear..given that Jordan is Islamic we both felt it might be very awkward..him being the only male in a shop most likely staffed and frequented by women...

anyway..he went off on his shipping trip and he needn't have worried...the underwear shop was run by a man and full of men buying their wives underwear so he felt quite at home!!

The problem arose when I wanted to go out and buy underwear at a later date..there is nothing more unnerving than, selecting, trying on and purchasing underwear surrounded by men...in the end we used to round up a posse of girls to go shopping and take the shop by storm so all the men would clear out...and then towards the end of our time there a very enterprising Jordanian woman set up her own underwear shop staffed by women...wonderful!!!

So I was very pleased when I saw on the BBC this morning that the Saudi government has decreed that all shops selling ladies underwear are to be staffed by women within the next year.