514 women’s wear shops shut down in 4 months

November 14, 2013

Riyadh, Nov 14: The Ministry of Labor has shut down a total of 514 women’s wear shops in four months for violating the ministry’s regulations to feminize them.

Abdullah Abu Thunain, Deputy Minister for inspection and improving work environment, said that a total of 1,173 shops came under penal action for violating regulations between July 7 and Nov. 4.

Among these shops, some 403 were forced to implement the regulation while 174 changed their status by removing the division of women’s wears. But 514 shops were closed down.

Penal action against the shops has been taken following inspections by officials from the ministry throughout the Kingdom. The ministry started implementing its regulation on feminizing shops selling abayas, women’s accessories, and fashion from July 7.

Abu Thunain said that 310 shops in Makkah region violated the regulations followed by Riyadh and the Eastern Province with 279 and 228 shops respectively. A total of 205 shops have been shut down in the Northern Border region while the Asir region recorded the lowest number of violations with 151 shops.

He said the nationwide inspection campaign that started on Nov. 4 against labor and residency law violators will also include women’s wear shops in the retail and wholesale sectors. “Inspectors will also check whether foreign employees at these shops are violating the residency and labor laws such as working with those other than sponsors, engaging in business for their own personal gain,” he said.

The punitive measures include placing the firm running the shop in the red category of the Nitaqat system, blocking the shop’s file from the Labor Office’s computer system, and asking the mayoralty or municipality either to freeze or cancel commercial registration or permanently shut down the shop.

The ministry asked citizens to report to it any violations of these regulations by phone (920001173) or email ([email protected]). The ministry’s inspection campaign comes in the second phase of feminizing shops selling women’s dresses, abayas and accessories. In the first phase, Saudization was implemented in lingerie shops.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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