49 Pics That Reveal How The Same Products And Images Look In The West Vs. Middle-East
Bikinis and mini-skirts may be commonplace in the Western world, but the Middle-East is a slightly different story. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran enforce strict modesty laws on women in keeping with Islamic tradition, and prohibit any skin other than the face and hands from showing. These restrictions even apply to Britney and Madonna, as it turns out.
Wearing sexy, revealing clothing is a great way to sell pretty much anything in North America. When these steamy images make their way into Islamic territories via media and advertisements, however, they're required to be toned down before they can be released to the public. In most cases, religious police in charge of censorship - known as mutaween - just take a big old Sharpie to Mariah's midriff or Shakira's shoulders. Recently, however, they've started to get a little creative with Photoshop, and even made headlines last week for replacing a woman in a pool ad with a beach ball. A+ for effort!
Check out the best, the worst, and the funniest edited images for sensitive audiences below, and just try to tell us that J-Lo isn't totally rocking those permanent marker pants.
This post may include affiliate links.
Britney Spears - Oops!...I Did It Again
Mariah Carey - Butterfly
Britney Spears Greatest Hits: My Prerogative
Jennifer Paige - Jennifer Paige
At least it's done better than many of the others. And it's a legit style. I probably wouldn't have noticed.
Gisele Bundchen's H&M Ad Campaign Censored For Middle East
Toni Braxton - More Than A Woman
More than a woman, less than a man, apparently... go ahead, give me all the thumbs down :)
Kylie Minogue - Light Years
Geri Halliwell - Scream If You Wanna Go Faster
Melanie B - Hot
Shakira - Shakira
Gloria Estefan - Abriendo Puertas
Come on! the original one was way less provocative than the Lady Gaga remix cover after they added strips!
Katy Perry - One Of The Boys
No kidding...she can kiss a girl and like it but not be seen in shorts ahahaha
Clarks Ad In Kuwait On The Left (It Is Allowed To Show Knees And Women Without A Headscarf) And In Saudi Arabia On The Right (It's Not Allowed)
Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey
Shakira - Laundry Service
Strange that women in the music business have to get their baps out and show this much skin when thr same isnt expected of men. Not saying skin censorship is the way, however. We need to ask ourselves, why? Oh yeah, sex sells. And i thought that it was the music which spoke for itself. Obv im muchos wrong, wrong, wrong xx
Britney Spears - Britney
This Huge Advertisement With Blurred Woman's Face In A Mall Of Jeddah
Tlc - Unpretty
This is the first iv ever heard about this Sharpie form of fashiom. Maybe its cos... As long as the records are getting sold, no artist actually really minds. Lesson learned= money is the real religion of the masses x
Hasna - Bamba
This is interesting. I've lived in Dubai all my life and this never happens here. Our tabloids are filled with pictures you'd deem 'westernized'. I find the title misleading. Not every Middle East country is like this.
same about Israel
Hany Osman, consult a map, Israel is in Asia, the Middle East, to be exact.
No, Hany. Israel is in the Middle East.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
@Hany with Israel they mean occupied Palestinian territories
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Israel is in Europe not the Middle East
These are all fake click baits. I challenge anyone who disagree to find one single link from any middle east music online store with a middle east top domain containing any of the censored pictures in the post....
I am Saudi, and it is all over the place here LOL!
Yeah it's very misleading. Countries like turkey , Lebanon don't have such issues .I think it mainly Saudi , golf countries thing.
That's a good point.
I was pretty skeptical of the article and edits, glad to hear from not just you, but others here from some of the countries out there.
Which countries do practice the whole 'westernized' thing?
I see the covers, but what about the lyrics? They are just as bad sometimes. I'm really surprised that some of these are even sold there.
Hanzo, all I meant was that the English lyrics might not be considered as offensive as these images because English isn't a first language there. Most of the world sings English-language songs they don't necessarily understand - I see it here in the Czech Republic every day...
Sorry, typo - I meant English-speaking 'countries'
They did not learn English yet, so the lyrics are fine. Then after they will probably play just the music 😂
Ignorant fools. I took my A level exam English as a first language from Cambridge university. So do most middle eastern countries.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
There are no English-speaking in the Middle East - might have something to do with it...
Havlik, are you serious?! RARELY have I met a M Easterner who doesn't speak English, French or German. 2nd/3rd lang is std part of education
@Adam Havlik, we do speak more languages than you,
Although i don't agree with such a degred of censorship it does remove some if not most of the objectification of woman. The objectification of any living creature is disgusting.
One of the women is literally morphed into a beachball. A beachball = a woman seems like the literal definition of objectification....
I don't think she means all of them. But you have to admit some of these edits look way better than the original like Miley Cyrus. She's not even wearing pants in the original in the edit the long skirt looks nice.
agreed with Rivkaka ! They blurred the whole woman's face at a point.Beside there are pics of women dressed "moderate" at the first place.They are totally extreme conservative and consider the whole = woman's body as a taboo.
Disgusting as the genital mutilation and stoning of women that happen on islamic midle eastern countries. Feminisn is incompatible with Islam.
Most of those countries were fairly advanced in the 60-s and 70-s. Then the us came, and toppled normal governments to replace than with the Taliban and the like. You reap what you sow.
Actually that's false. The interpretation of some of the texts make for very a very sexist situation, but it doesn't mean that it's the only interpretation. A beautiful movie called "The Source" show it very clearly. Also, those things are not mutual or exclusive to the Islamic religion. A young woman was shot in France by her Portuguese father because she came home on the bike of a man, genital mutilations have also been practiced for generations in diverse places including Africa. Stop using feminism as an excuse for your Islamophobia please.
🌸.+Feminism is illegal in Saudi Arabia because it allows evil lurking everywhere so everybody will be all in great danger+.🌸
Dropping the Islamophobia bomb are ya? haha, I am not a feminist, #FeminismIsCancer, but #IslamIsCancer too.In non Islamic countries there are few, ver, very few cases of genital mutilation, familial gang raping and genital mutilation, but only in islamic countries it's a standard. So, do not tell me I am an islamophonebe when islamic countries are misogynistic, and remember, I am NOT a feminist, I disagree with it's bullshit, but I disagree with Islam more.
This! Thank you for this! Not all countries in middle-east wear hijabs and I'm not opinionated they should, but west is as a matter of fact the opposite evil.
Agreed
Not to mention the blatant photo editing to make the women appear thinner, curvier, more "appealing" (unrealistic).
This is interesting. I've lived in Dubai all my life and this never happens here. Our tabloids are filled with pictures you'd deem 'westernized'. I find the title misleading. Not every Middle East country is like this.
same about Israel
Hany Osman, consult a map, Israel is in Asia, the Middle East, to be exact.
No, Hany. Israel is in the Middle East.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
@Hany with Israel they mean occupied Palestinian territories
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Israel is in Europe not the Middle East
These are all fake click baits. I challenge anyone who disagree to find one single link from any middle east music online store with a middle east top domain containing any of the censored pictures in the post....
I am Saudi, and it is all over the place here LOL!
Yeah it's very misleading. Countries like turkey , Lebanon don't have such issues .I think it mainly Saudi , golf countries thing.
That's a good point.
I was pretty skeptical of the article and edits, glad to hear from not just you, but others here from some of the countries out there.
Which countries do practice the whole 'westernized' thing?
I see the covers, but what about the lyrics? They are just as bad sometimes. I'm really surprised that some of these are even sold there.
Hanzo, all I meant was that the English lyrics might not be considered as offensive as these images because English isn't a first language there. Most of the world sings English-language songs they don't necessarily understand - I see it here in the Czech Republic every day...
Sorry, typo - I meant English-speaking 'countries'
They did not learn English yet, so the lyrics are fine. Then after they will probably play just the music 😂
Ignorant fools. I took my A level exam English as a first language from Cambridge university. So do most middle eastern countries.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
There are no English-speaking in the Middle East - might have something to do with it...
Havlik, are you serious?! RARELY have I met a M Easterner who doesn't speak English, French or German. 2nd/3rd lang is std part of education
@Adam Havlik, we do speak more languages than you,
Although i don't agree with such a degred of censorship it does remove some if not most of the objectification of woman. The objectification of any living creature is disgusting.
One of the women is literally morphed into a beachball. A beachball = a woman seems like the literal definition of objectification....
I don't think she means all of them. But you have to admit some of these edits look way better than the original like Miley Cyrus. She's not even wearing pants in the original in the edit the long skirt looks nice.
agreed with Rivkaka ! They blurred the whole woman's face at a point.Beside there are pics of women dressed "moderate" at the first place.They are totally extreme conservative and consider the whole = woman's body as a taboo.
Disgusting as the genital mutilation and stoning of women that happen on islamic midle eastern countries. Feminisn is incompatible with Islam.
Most of those countries were fairly advanced in the 60-s and 70-s. Then the us came, and toppled normal governments to replace than with the Taliban and the like. You reap what you sow.
Actually that's false. The interpretation of some of the texts make for very a very sexist situation, but it doesn't mean that it's the only interpretation. A beautiful movie called "The Source" show it very clearly. Also, those things are not mutual or exclusive to the Islamic religion. A young woman was shot in France by her Portuguese father because she came home on the bike of a man, genital mutilations have also been practiced for generations in diverse places including Africa. Stop using feminism as an excuse for your Islamophobia please.
🌸.+Feminism is illegal in Saudi Arabia because it allows evil lurking everywhere so everybody will be all in great danger+.🌸
Dropping the Islamophobia bomb are ya? haha, I am not a feminist, #FeminismIsCancer, but #IslamIsCancer too.In non Islamic countries there are few, ver, very few cases of genital mutilation, familial gang raping and genital mutilation, but only in islamic countries it's a standard. So, do not tell me I am an islamophonebe when islamic countries are misogynistic, and remember, I am NOT a feminist, I disagree with it's bullshit, but I disagree with Islam more.
This! Thank you for this! Not all countries in middle-east wear hijabs and I'm not opinionated they should, but west is as a matter of fact the opposite evil.
Agreed
Not to mention the blatant photo editing to make the women appear thinner, curvier, more "appealing" (unrealistic).