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Written by: Joann Yeh

Ikea Erases Women from Saudi Catalogs

Hey, when in Rome, right?

If you happen to run a misogynistic country that prefers to keep women out of sight, you no longer have to rely on your own propaganda - Ikea will help you spread that message.

The Swedish furniture giant published catalogs for the Saudi Arabian market in which all pictures of women were women were removed including a female Ikea furnishings designer. Swedish paper Metro splashed side-by-side pictures of one of the doctored images and the unaltered one from the catalog version available in Sweden and elsewhere with the headline “Ikea Erases Women.” Facing criticism, Ikea “regretted” its actions and put out a statement: "Excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with IKEA Group values.”

Let’s not get too crazy here. Ikea doesn’t exist to make the world a better place but to fill it with cheap flat-packed furniture and instructions that don’t work. If it's serious about the Saudi dollar, it should have gone further: “Try the EKTORP Loveseat. Watching a public stoning on television has never been more comfortable.”

The real question is why are the Saudis buying crappy furniture? They’re meant to be rich. Has the oil run out?

 

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