IKEA Removes Women From Saudi Arabia Catalogs - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

Approximately 200 million copies of IKEA's newest catalogue are scheduled to be circulated in 38 countries.

However, the Swedish furniture company reportedly removed or ‘erased’ women out of the catalogue set to be distributed in Saudi Arabia.

Most of the versions for various countries are strikingly similar, except for Saudi Arabia’s. The decision to remove photos of women seems to reflect the country’s cultural beliefs. The company is now under some heat. A spokesperson states “As a producer of the catalog, we regret the current situation. 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.”

Recently, KEA removed a picture off of their Russian website, only this time it was done to avoid any controversy. Four teenagers were shown in the photo, wearing ski-masks resembling members of the Russian punk band, Pussy Riot. However, following the arrests of the band members for hooliganism, the company removed the photo.