Womanless Israeli IKEA catalog designed for ultra-Orthodox Jews draws criticism
Swedish flat-pack furniture behemoth IKEA has suffered an online backlash after issuing a catalog, aimed at ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, which featured no women.
The brochure is specifically designed for the Haredi (Orthodox) community and depicts men and boys with traditional side curls and wearing kippahs in a variety of domestic poses.
For its ultra Orthodox customers, Ikea Israel has issued a catalogue from which images of women are entirely absent. https://t.co/Z3SWwA4Dshpic.twitter.com/wpIhmOqQes
— Lisa Goldman (@lisang) February 16, 2017
SHAME on @IKEA for excluding women from Israel catalogue pic.twitter.com/sNww7JyPdR
— {[(נַעֲמָה Naama)]} (@Naamangr) February 17, 2017
So IKEA made a special catalogue for ultra orthodox jews in Israel. With no women in it. World not doing so well right now are we?
— Madelene (@MadAxes) February 16, 2017
The items include bunk beds and bookcases lined with religious texts, display cases with Shabbat candlesticks and tables set for the Sabbath meal, but not a single woman or girl is featured.
The Haredi make up roughly 11 percent of Israel’s population of 8.5 million and are known for the absence of women in their media.
IKEA supress images of women and girls in its catalogue in Israel—only boys, raised in an all-male society.https://t.co/orir0gTw4epic.twitter.com/4O2R3fw2hs
— Alfons López Tena (@alfonslopeztena) February 16, 2017
I wonder @ikea why you allow IKEA Israel to produce a magazine that excludes women in the name of religion. Money is no excuse, SHAME
— tammy gorali (@tammygorali) February 15, 2017
The furniture giant told the Times of Israel that they issued the catalog following a number of requests to do so. “We decided to launch a dedicated and unique magazine that also allows the Haredi and religious public the benefit of enjoying the products and solutions IKEA offers in accordance with their lifestyle,” IKEA said.
READ MORE: BBC impartiality questioned over map of Israel which erased Gaza
The company issued an official apology Friday, saying that the catalog "is not something that has gone through us."
"We have been very clear that this is not what the IKEA brand stands for," IKEA spokeswoman Josefin Thorell told Swedish news agency TT.
This is not the first time the company has come under fire for omitting women from its publications. In 2012 the company issued an apology for photoshopping women out of the catalogs distributed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
READ MORE: No girls allowed: Women airbrushed out of IKEA’s Saudi Arabian catalog
