As mentioned earlier, Saudi Arabia's strict segregation laws ban women from working in stores, which means that women have to buy underwear from male clerks. Three months ago, a group of Saudi women launched a campaign to boycott lingerie stores until the country allows them to employ women. Reem Asaad, the women who organized the boycott, says training women was the idea of Suhair al-Qurashi, who is also working on the campaign. The Associated Press reports:

"She wanted the training to be a part of the solution because the industry was complaining that there's a lack of qualified [women] in the market who can run and manage lingerie stores," said Asaad. "So we covered fitting and technical issues, we covered selling and handling customer complaints."

After hearing about the boycott online, an Australian women offered to teach the course and a group of Victoria's Secret employees sent a box of bras to be used during training. "It was a beautiful experience," said Faten Abdo, who works as a coordinator in the offices of a lingerie company. "The most shocking thing for me was the bra sizes. We didn't know how to get proper measurements before."

Yesterday, after completing the 10-day course in Jiddah, the women held a small graduation ceremony. British consul-general Kate Rudd attended to show support for the campaign. "It was a small step, but perhaps from this little drop there will be bigger ripples," said Rudd.

Saudi Women Learning To Sell Bras [The Associated Press]

Earlier: Boy-Cott: Male Lingerie Salesmen Not Helping Modesty Say Saudi Women

[The person seen in the image at left is not the girl in question] The girl's mother petitioned for the annulment in December, but was refused on a technicality. The eight-year-old's father arranged the marriage between his daughter and a "close friend" in order to settle debts with the man. According to Al Arabiya News Channel the marriage contract was created as part of a loan repayment agreement. In exchange for the girl, the groom agreed to deduct the equivalent of $8,000 from the debt owed him by the girl's father.

The judge ruled that the child bride will be allowed to petition for divorce once she has reached puberty. Her husband was also forced to sign an agreement that he will not have sex with her until then. There are reports that the judge initially tried to negotiate with the groom, asking him to divorce the girl in exchange for monetary payment. The girl's uncle was unhappy with this idea. "We cannot accept that. It's like rewarding him. The court has to make an example of him so that others won't try to do the same thing," he said. An unnamed relative told the press that the girl's mother plans to continue to seek an annulment for her daughter.

Many members of the Saudi government maintain that it acceptable for girls as young as 10 to wed. "It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger," said Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, during an lecture on underage girls being forced into marriage. "A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her." Al-Sheikh also reassured the public that "sharia law has not brought injustice to women."

On Monday, UNICEF expressed its "deep concern" over the court ruling.

"Irrespective of circumstances or the legal framework, the marriage of a child is a violation of that child's rights," said Ann Veneman, executive director of UNICEF.

"The right to free and full consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Consent cannot be free and full when either party to a marriage is too young to make an informed decision."

Many believe that the mere fact we are talking about this, and that the young girl's mother would have the courage to petition the courts, signals a change in attitude. Christoph Wilcke of Human Rights Watch tells CNN that he hears of cases like this every few months, and not because the practice is new: "Saudi public is now able to express this kind of anger — especially so when girls are traded off to older men," he said. Further support comes from the Saudi Society for the Defense of Women's Rights. Recently the group released a video titled "I am a Child, Not a Woman." They are also campaigning to raise the legal age of marriage to 17 for girls and 18 for boys.

And there may be hope yet for the 8-year-old bride: Earlier today, the justice minister announced plans to regulate the marriages of young girls. Justice Minister Mohamed al-Issa told newspapers that they aim to "to put an end to arbitrariness by parents and guardians in marrying off minor girls."

Saudi Judge Refuses To Annul 8-Year-old's Marriage [CNN]
8-Year-Old Girl's Marriage Ruled Legal [UPI]
No Divorce For 8 Yr. Old Saudi Girl, Says Judge [Al Arabiya News Channel]
Saudi Arabia To Regulate Girls' Marriages [Reuters]
Liberals And Child Brides [NRO]
UNICEF 'Deeply Concerned' Bbout Marriage Of 8-year-Old [CNN]

• A new survey suggests that fathers are better at giving driving lessons than mothers, who tend to panic, while dads just swear. • Brazilian researchers have found that among teenage girls, there are alarmingly high rates of STDs that often go undetected. • The BBC has an amazing video of a monkey teaching its young to floss with human hair. • More monkey news: zoologists have found that monkey tantrums should never go ignored. • From the Institute of No Shit Studies: men in their 60s drive the most powerful cars. • A Miami evangelist claiming to be the anti-Christ has gone into hiding following a court ruling to pay his ex-wife $2.2 million. Wonder if Satan will help him out of this one. • Some asshole put his wife up for sale, describing her as "Nagging Wife. No Tax, Not MOT. Very high maintenance - some rust." He says he was shocked that he received several offers. • The Hijabi Monologues, a little known play about Muslim women who wear the headscarf, is currently showing in LA. • A little over a year ago, Wajeha al-Huwaider made a pledged to get the Saudi ban on women driving lifted by Women's Day 2009. Sadly, the ban is still in place. • The man who threw his shoe at our esteemed former President has been sentenced to three years in prison by an Iraqi court. • This is not exactly news to any American college student, but the American Dietetic Association has found that 58% of "kid cereals" are actually being consumed by adults. • Sad: a survey of Boston teens found that nearly half of them believe Rihanna was responsible for Chris Brown's assault on her. •  Could Coulter's reign of terror be coming to a close? Ann Coulter's new book Guilty isn't selling nearly as well as her others did. • 

The Human Rights Watch has come to the aid of Falih and has appealed to the Saudi government to halt the execution. "The fact that Saudi judges still conduct trials for unprovable crimes like 'witchcraft' underscores their inability to carry out objective criminal investigations," Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, told CBS.

This obviously isn't the first time that the Saudi government has come under international fire for their legal system's foibles. Last year, another Saudi woman was sentenced to lashings and imprisonment after she was gang raped. She had been sentenced because she was riding in a car alone with a man to whom she was not related, which at that point was illegal according to stringent Saudi laws concerning male/female contact. That woman was eventually pardoned, and on the bright side, the Saudi government has plans to lift its ban on female drivers.

The death sentence of the Saudi "witch" comes on the heels of an edict from the UN yesterday, in which the Saudi government was encouraged to provide a legal framework to stop violence against women. According to Reuters, Yakin Erturk, the U.N.'s human rights expert on violence against women, said, "The lack of written laws governing private life constitutes a major obstacle to women's access to justice...The need to address women's rights will grow increasingly urgent as the voices of women in Saudi society are heard."

When women in Saudi Arabia are reliving the Salem witch trials, it's definitely time for international intervention. What's next, dunking women in the Persian Gulf to see if they float?

Saudi Woman Faces Death For Witchcraft [CBS News]
Saudi Woman Faces Death For Witchcraft [Telegraph]
U.N. Tells Saudis To Tackle Violence Against Women [Reuters]

Earlier: Saudi Rape Victim Pardoned Due To "Psychological Effects"
Milestones