Ikea, the Swedish home furniture and accessories giant, came under fire after removing all the women from their Saudi Arabian catalog which the company has now issued an apology following the outrage.
In the Saudi version of Ikea's annual furniture booklet, all the women and girls who appear in the catalogue published in other countries have been removed via photo retouching. The pictures in the Saudi catalogue display the same interiors and products, but no women.
One of the pictures showed a mother in front of a bathroom mirror alongside her family, but the Saudi edition removed the mother. In another picture, a barefoot woman with earrings was replaced by a man in black socks.
Ikea released a statement saying: "We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalogue is in conflict with the IKEA Group values."
"You can't remove or airbrush women out of reality. If Saudi Arabia does not allow women to be seen or heard, or to work, they are letting half their intellectual capital go to waste," Swedish minister for trade, Ewa Björling said in a statement, according to Swedish publication, The Local.
IKEA spokesperson Ylva Magnusson told German press agency dpa that the catalogue was designed by an external franchise owner that operates IKEA stores in Saudi Arabia.
Women in Saudi Arabia live under strict Islamic law, and are forbidden from behavior that is common in Western cultures. The Gulf kingdom is the only country in the world that prohibits women from driving. Saudi Arabia n women are also not allowed to vote, and must be given permission from a man in order to work, travel or open a bank account.
Ikea's Saudi franchise partner currently operates three stores in the country, where it has seen "double digit" yearly growth over the past five years, according to its website.
