Newspaper erases Angela Merkel, other women from Paris march photos

If you ask the readers of HaMevaser newspaper, they'll tell you that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo weren't at Sunday's anti-terrorism march in Paris. That's because, citing modesty, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish publication as a standard of practice removes images of women from its pages, even those who are among the most powerful leaders in the world.

Merkel and Hidalgo were completely removed from a published photo of the march while Thorning-Schmidt was cropped out, although — avert your gaze! — her left hand remains in the picture. The same thing happened to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, The Sydney Morning Herald reports, as she was digitally erased from photos taken inside the White House Situation Room during the Osama bin Laden raid.

The Forward says this is all par for the course, with conservative newspapers also routinely removing women from ads and blurring the faces of women and girls pictured in obituaries. In one case, a paper even edited out a pair of women's shoes that were photographed inside of a family's dresser.

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