Ikea airbrushes women out of Saudi catalog

The Swedish Wire blog explains: Ikea’s catalog is printed in 198 million copies and looks almost the same in 27 languages and in 38 countries. With one big exception. In the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog almost all women have been erased, Swedish newspaper Metro said. Sweden’s minister of trade Ewa Björling said the ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
623515_121001_ikea1fore.jpg
623515_121001_ikea1fore.jpg

The Swedish Wire blog explains:

Ikea’s catalog is printed in 198 million copies and looks almost the same in 27 languages and in 38 countries. With one big exception. In the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog almost all women have been erased, Swedish newspaper Metro said. Sweden’s minister of trade Ewa Björling said the retouched images are a “sad example” of women oppression.

More on the furniture chain’s other alleged past collaborations with authoritarian regimes here.  Also check out this slideshow on China’s Ikea culture

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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