Left: Swedish Version. Right: Saudi Arabian version.
Saudi Arabia made history when it sent its first female athletes to the Olympics this year. Furniture giant IKEA, however, has decided to completely erase women from its Saudi Arabian catalogues.
In a comparison between the Swedish and Saudi Arabian 2013 IKEA Catalogues, Metro found that women were oddly missing from only the Saudi Arabian version. The company erased a woman from a lounge chair, deleted an entire family from a dining set, and even removed one of IKEA’s female designers– but left behind her three male equivalents. Women appear in all 26 other versions of the catalogue.
In Saudi Arabia, women live by strict Islamic law and are not allowed to drive or vote and must be given male permission to move, study, and work. Women can be shown in catalogues, though much of their exposed skin is often covered by censors.
IKEA has released an apology for the extreme editing. A spokesperson told RT that the Saudi Arabian catalogue was created by an external franchisee.
This is the first instance of women being selectively removed from an IKEA catalogue.
Both the standard catalogue and the Saudi Arabian version are available to view online. [Metro]
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