Imagine you walk into Victoria Secrets only to be told by a man you don't know your size. Uncomfortable to the max...

Taken from Yahoo .

JEDDAH (Reuters Life!) – The first thing Dalya does when entering a lingerie shop in Saudi Arabia is scan the area for men after an embarrassing encounter a year ago.

With colorful lace, cotton and sheer bras on display, the 26-year-oldvividly remembers when she randomly picked one up to examine it only tobe surprised by a male voice saying: "That bra is not your size, youneed one two sizes bigger."

It was a salesman trying to be helpful, she discovered, though she wasfurther unnerved when she realized he had correctly estimated her size.

In the ultra conservative Saudi Arabia -- where women have long beendiscouraged from taking up work in public places that allow male access-- even lingerie shops are still mostly staffed by male employees.

Religious police patrol the streets to ensure adherence to the country'sstrict segregation laws and to make sure that women, who are also notallowed to drive, are covered in loose black garments (abayas) when theyare out in public.

"I was shocked because I realized that the salesman actually scanned mybody, even though I was covered in my abaya, and he actually got theright size," said Dalya, whose last name has been withheld to protecther privacy.

"That made me very uncomfortable."

Dalya's discomfort with the state of affairs is a growing concern amongSaudi women who are forced to buy their intimate clothing from men in aconservative society where female modesty is paramount.

"Imagine, a (strange) man looking at your underwear. This is veryembarrassing... We grew up on modesty and religion. Our private thingsshould not be visible to strangers," said Fatima Qaroob, who launched acampaign last month calling for such salesmen to be replaced by women.

"I felt like I was being stripped naked," she said, recalling anincident when a cashier at a lingerie shop rummaged through items shehad selected in search of the price ticket.

However, change in the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia does not come easily and Qaroob's "Enough Embarrassment" campaign is not the first attempt to replace salesmen in the country.

Saudi businesses resisted a 2006 government decree urging them to hire only women employees shops selling intimate female products on the grounds that such achange would bring a rise in costs related to the country's strict ruleson segregation.