Women can now work as waitresses in restaurants in Saudi Arabia country, the head of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has said.
Abdul Lateef Al Shaikh said that women however will work only in sections designated for them in line with an agreement to employ them.
According to Gulf News, earlier women were told that their work in the hospitality service would be limited to the kitchen and that they could not work as waitresses.
Authorities in the kingdom have been pushing for changing the deep-rooted social rules that have traditionally banned women from taking up jobs in public places other than all girls' schools and hospitals.
The move is motivated by the need to find jobs for thousands of Saudi female graduates and school leavers and to reduce dependency on millions of foreigners, mainly from Asian countries, the report said.
Several Saudi women welcomed the steps taken in favour of empowering them economically.