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A streaming site in Iran is removing women from their own album covers

A key streaming service in Iran has decided to take matters into their own hands, spurred by worries surrounding the impact of album cover visuals and exposure of inappropriate images.

Concerned that some popular album covers may negatively influence the public, Melovaz have decided to blur or completely remove images featured on them. Only, a recurring theme of the images being removed is that they all seem to be of women.

album cover

A key music streaming service in Iran is removing images of women from album covers, influenced by harsh laws which limit female self-expression.

The actions stem from the country’s strict Islamic laws which entail severe restrictions on women’s self-expression.

Of course we all know that the most important part of an album is the music, but album cover art can set an overall aesthetic and precedent for how we perceive the actual music. Despite the fact that these well known, talented, and highly respected female musicians seem to be posing in a particularly PG-fashion, the service has decided to completely remove their image from their own album art streamed on the website.

No, this isn’t some botchy home photoshop job. Real graphic designers have been employed with the task of removing any female image from album covers before they are able to be streamed through the site. Just like that, women are erased. Apparently just the allure of Beyonce‘s gaze is too much to take.

We’ve collected some of the before and after album covers below. Take a look for yourself.

Lady Gaga – Joanne 
album cover

Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
lana del rey

Beyonce – Spirit 
beyonce

Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep
billie eilish

Kygo And Whitney Houston – Higher Love
whitney houston

Katy Perry – Small Talk
katy perry