Birds of a feather
by David Atkins
It seems that wherever fundamentalist religion is strongest, women suffer the most. Often so much that they must be as literally invisible as possible. Case in point:
The Ikea catalog distributed in Saudi Arabia is the same as in other countries except for what it's missing — women.
The Swedish publication Metro has posted a comparison of the Saudi Arabian mailer and the Swedish version, showing that women present in the latter were missing from the former.
In one instance, a pajama-clad woman — shown standing at a bathroom sink along with a man, young boy and toddler nearby — was erased from the catalog distributed in the Arab nation, leaving just the three other people in the picture.
Here's one of the examples:
It's not just Islamic fundamentalists. There's also this:
A Hasidic newspaper said it was following Jewish modesty laws when it printed a Situation Room photo that was doctored to remove Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a second female White House staffer.
The Brooklyn-based Der Zeitung sparked Internet outcry after it published the now iconic photo Friday showing only men present to monitor the daring 40-minute Navy SEALs raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
National Security team member Audrey Tomason was also scrubbed from the image.
The ultra-Orthodox Der Zeitung released a statement Monday apologizing if the edited image "was seen as offensive," but said it was following Jewish modesty laws when it made the decision to delete Clinton and Tomason from historical record.
And while it usually doesn't amount to pictorial erasure, Christian fundamentalists aren't far behind with the Quiverfull movement.
Birds of a feather flock together. No women may apply for the glorious fundamentalist celestial kingdom.
Something tells me that if there is a divine presence in this world, She's far, far, far away from these misogynist lunatics.
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