Amazon has yanked a “sexy burqa” costume after complaints that it was offensive and culturally insensitive, the Evening Standard newspaper reported Friday.
The costume, essentially a black veil paired with a short-hemmed dress, was denounced by angry commenters before being removed from the site.
“All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don’t will be subject to action including potential removal of their account,” the British newspaper quoted an unnamed Amazon U.K. spokesman. The item has also been pulled from the Amazon.com website that American customers access.
Of course, British women hoping to dress up as a “sexy nun” are in luck. A search of Amazon.co.uk for those costumes yielded more than 1,300 hits. Their American cousins have more options open to them with nearly 6,000 hits for the “sexy nun” search term on Amazon.com.
And there’s always the “Authentic Afghan Ladies Burqa” that you can order from a British company named Cook Kaftan via Amazon U.K. It “Hides your Beauty for that special someone” and is “Imported from the Afghan/ Pak Borders,” according to the official description.
A similar listing on Amazon.com adds that the burqa is an item “every lady must have.”
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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