Swedish furniture giant IKEA have made a public apology for removing images of women from their Saudia Arabia catalogue.
The story appeared in the Swedish edition of Metro who compared the images of the Saudi catalogue with other IKEA catalogues in a spot the difference type gallery.
Ikea Catalogue Spot The Difference
Perhaps the most shocking change is in the image a family in a bathroom- the original version features a man, woman and two children, while the Saudi Arabian version has deleted the woman from the scene leaving the other three frozen in their poses. Motherless.
"We regret the current situation," a spokesperson for the IKEA Group, Ylva Magnusson, said. "We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with the IKEA Group values."
The catalogue appears to have been doctored to fit in with other Saudi Arabian advertising - where women appear infrequently, and if so with most of their bodies covered.
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"Women can not be retouch away in reality. If Saudi Arabia does not allow women to appear [in public] or work, they lose about half their intellectual capital," Sweden's minister of trade Ewa Björling told Metro.
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