Women erased from Saudi IKEA catalog

Companies - Published Monday, 01 October 2012 06:35 | Author: Johan Nylander

Women erased from Saudi IKEA catalog

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.

"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", she told Metro.

"These pictures is sad example that shows that there is a long way to go in terms of equality between men and women in Saudi Arabia".

Women's rights in Saudi Arabia are defined by Islam and tribal customs. Human Rights Watch said in a report that the Saudi guardianship system continues to treat women as minors. Under this discriminatory system, girls and women of all ages are forbidden from traveling, studying, or working without permission from their male guardians.

Although the edited catalogue was produced by a third-party franchise, it is highly unlikely no one at Ikea was aware of the requested edits.

"We should have reacted and realised that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalogue is in conflict with the Ikea group values'', Ikea's official statement read.

Last Updated (Wednesday, 03 October 2012 05:14)

Comments

123

#26 2012-10-13 10:15

Quoting Robert Miles:

Ikea is being foolish by backtracking. Removing women is fine, who cares? Is it about women or the furniture.
[quote name="idk"]I don't understand, so important Saudi have women in IKEA catalog? They just NEED it? catalog "as is", "stimm das?". No problem? - just do it =)

i would like to see how you morons reacted if all the men were removed from ikea anywhere. what's so important about having women at all? only those who have [censored]es count, right?

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#25 2012-10-05 20:27

Well, what we do is refuce to buy any more oil and gas (even if they do gas there) from the Saudi mysogynists. Russia is falling over itself to sell the stuff to us, and we are about also to get 500 trillion cubic metres of shalegas from the Irish Sea. So we can give the Saudibuggers some "integrated adivce which concerns the combination of far foreign travel with sexual procreative activity".

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#24 2012-10-02 22:29

Ikea management should be ashamed of themselves for kowtowing to Saudi nonsense. If my kitchen cabinets weren't on the wall already, I would return them to the store on principle.
Apologies are not sufficient... action speaks louder than words. Put the catalogues with women back into the stores, otherwise apologies are meaningless. Women should stand united. If Ikea does not make good to the women of the world, then women should begin a boycott.

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#23 2012-10-02 10:45

IKEA did the editing and just cause the saudi market is one on the best selling countries in the world not just for IKEA but for most world wide big names in all sectors,,,,, money counts and can change concepts ... long life KSA
by the way in not from KSA ;-)

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#22 2012-10-02 09:46

Ikea is being foolish by backtracking. Removing women is fine, who cares? Is it about women or the furniture. ME countries do not appreciate women in ads, so to do business there you need to adapt. Or else stay out of the best regions in the world. They do not need to change, the companies that want their money need to adapt. Ikea milks the ME by pretending to be upmarket then they want to spit on the culture and beliefs by saying it was a mistake?

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#21 2012-10-02 08:21

I don't understand, so important Saudi have women in IKEA catalog? They just NEED it? catalog "as is", "stimm das?".
No problem? - just do it =)

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#20 2012-10-01 22:10

The catalog was produced by the IKEA. Erasing the women was a "mistake" that happened before the catalog got to the Saudies according to the spokesman.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/10/ikea-regrets-women-erased-from-saudi-catalog/

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#19 2012-10-01 21:56

More information on IKEA in US

Ikea's U.S. factory churns out unhappy workers
A union-organizing battle hangs over the Ikea plant in Virginia. Workers complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace, mandatory overtime and racial discrimination.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/10/business/la-fi-ikea-union-20110410

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#18 2012-10-01 21:16

http://bit.ly/UClKfX

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#17 2012-10-01 20:21

Quoting Nick: