Zara bosses forced to withdraw 'Swastika' handbags from shelves

[Honey]

A bag embroidered with Nazi-style swastikas was withdrawn by fashion store Zara today after a rush of complaints.



Bosses were forced to apologise and withdrew the £39 bag immediately. The bag - which also features flowers and bicycles - has four green swastikas at each corner.
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Rachel Hatton, 19, was shocked to get her Zara bag home and find swastikas all over it



Race-hate campaigners described the bags as "abhorrent".
Denis Fernando, national secretary of Unite Against Fascism said: "We believe there are many ways in which fascism is legitimised in modern society.
"There are people who see that symbol and it means annihilation and murder to them.
"It is completely offensive and abhorrent to millions and millions of people.
"Fascism and racist symbols are sometimes legitimised in popular culture, this is one of those times. It should have no place in a modern society.
Rachel Hatton, 19, from Ashford, Kent, who bought the bag, said: "I brought it back to the shop and asked someone if it was a swastika. A man said it did look like one and so I got my money refunded.
"It's a terrible thing to put on a bag."
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The offending 'swastika' bag has now been removed from Zara's shelves with an apology from staff




Denis Fernando, national secretary of Unite Against Fascism, said: "Fascism and racist symbols are sometimes legitimised in popular culture, this is one of those times."
A Zara spokesman said today: "We did not realise Swastikas appeared on some of these bags, the swastika was not on the bag which was sourced by us after being supplied by an external producer. "Of course we apologise to anyone who was offended by the bag, and we will be withdrawing it from all our stores."
Zara, which is owned by Spanish retail giant Inditex Group, has 50 stores in the UK and is a favourite of super WAG Alex Curran - who regularly buys clothes for her daughters Lilly-Ella, three, and Lexie, one, at the high street store.
Alex Curran, who is married to Liverpool and England midfielder Steve Gerrard, has spoken of her daughter's love for the chain, saying: "I usually get their stuff at Gap, Zara, H&M and Monsoon."
The Spanish firm has 1,026 stores in 68 countries across the world and is considered to be one of the largest fashion retailers in Europe.
The swastika was a Hindu symbol appropriated by the Nazis.

Zara bosses forced to withdraw 'Swastika' handbags from shelves | the Daily Mail

[Chilly Willy]

How stupid.

[sputnik]

the bag's kind of cute in a hippie dippie kind of way. well except for the big swastikas

[Chilly Willy]

^^ I bet Hitler would have loved it! He was a hippie dippie kind of dude.

[sputnik]

^^^
hey, he was even a vegetarian

[VenusInFauxFurs]

I'm not a fan of the swastika, but on that fabric it seems sort of in context. Like the fabric is from Tibet or India or some place where that symbol doesn't have the same connotations that it does here.

Still, whoever designed the bag should have put a bit of thought into the consequences of using fabric with such a loaded symbol on it.

[Laurent]

Originally Posted by VenusInFauxFurs

I'm not a fan of the swastika, but on that fabric it seems sort of in context. Like the fabric is from Tibet or India or some place where that symbol doesn't have the same connotations that it does here.

That's what I was thinking. In some cultures, it is a religious symbol that's been around for like 3,000 plus years. I wonder if that wasn't the intention.

[Beeyotch]

True about the Hindu symbol's different meaning in a different context, but HELLO! Zara knew it was going to be sold in Europe. It's called forethought.

[suede]

Originally Posted by VenusInFauxFurs

I'm not a fan of the swastika, but on that fabric it seems sort of in context. Like the fabric is from Tibet or India or some place where that symbol doesn't have the same connotations that it does here.

Still, whoever designed the bag should have put a bit of thought into the consequences of using fabric with such a loaded symbol on it.

Yes, yes and YES.

[VenusInFauxFurs]

Also, who the hell pays £39 for a bag and doesn't actually look at it? Okay £39 isn't expensive, but it's not like picking up a £5 bag at the markets just to store dirty laundry in.

[Sweetie]

^ That was my first thought. How the hell do you buy a bag much less get it home before you look at it.
I think this girl is a complete and total idiot.

[WitchHazelEyed]

She probably did see it in the store but she needed to take pictures of it so that she could send them to all the local media outlets and get her ugly mug in the public eye.

[VenusInFauxFurs]

Yes, let me look all indignant for the newspapers!

I was conned into buying a £39 bag with a swastika on it omigawd!

[TheMoog]

The swastika (from Sanskrit svástika स्वास्तिक ) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing (卐) or left-facing (卍) forms. The term is derived from Sanskrit svasti, meaning well-being. The Thai greeting sawasdee is from the same root and carries the same implication.

It is a widely-used symbol in Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism). Hindus often decorate the swastika with a dot in each quadrant. In India, it is common enough to be a part of several Devanagari fonts. It is also a symbol in the modern Unicode and is often imprinted on religious texts, marriage invitations, and decorations. It is used to mark religious flags in Jainism and Buddhist temples in Asia.

Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from the Neolithic period. In 1920, the swastika was appropriated as a Nazi symbol, and since then has become a controversial motif. In the Western world, it is this usage as a symbol of Nazism that is most familiar, and this political association has largely eclipsed its historical use in the East.

The symbol occurs in other Asian, European, African and Native American cultures – sometimes as a geometrical motif and sometimes as a religious symbol.
The swastika has an extensive history. The motif seems to have first been used in Neolithic Eurasia. The symbol has an ancient history in Europe, appearing on artifacts from pre-Christian European cultures. In antiquity, the swastika was used extensively by the Indo-Aryans, Hittites, Celts and Greeks, among others. In particular, the swastika is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism — religions with over a billion adherents worldwide, making the swastika ubiquitous in both historical and contemporary society. The symbol was introduced to Southeast Asia by Hindu kings and remains an integral part of Balinese Hinduism to this day, and it is a common sight in Indonesia. It also was adopted independently by several Native American cultures.


Greek helmet with swastika marks on the top part (details), 350-325 BC from Taranto, found at Herculanum. Cabinet des Médailles, Paris.
In the Western world, the symbol experienced a resurgence following the archaeological work in the late 19th century of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the site of ancient Troy and associated it with the ancient migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans. He connected it with similar shapes found on ancient pots in Germany, and theorized that the swastika was a "significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors," linking Germanic, Greek and Indo-Iranian cultures.[3][4] By the early 20th century, it was widely used worldwide and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and success.

The work of Schliemann soon became intertwined with the völkisch movements, for which the swastika was a symbol of "Aryan" identity, a concept that came to be equated by theorists such as Alfred Rosenberg with a Nordic master race originating in northern Europe. Since its adoption by the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler, the swastika has been associated with fascism, racism (white supremacy), World War II, and the Holocaust in much of the West. The swastika remains a core symbol of Neo-Nazi groups, and is used regularly by activist groups to signify the supposed Nazi-like behavior of organizations and individuals they oppose.

Swastika - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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^^^ An interesting read with great pictorial examples - architecture, jewelry, etc. I saw something on a TV programme about how the swastika had a long history before the Nazis appropriated it. Sadly, it will probably always carry Fascist connotations now. I also didn't realise there's a town on Ontario called Swastika?

The bag itself wouldn't offend me but I guess I'd be afraid to use it for fear of Outraged From Kent Chavs beating me up in their ignorance

[yanna]

I don't think anyone could get away with wearing anything with a swastika on it these days.

Many 19th century buildings in Athens have swastika patterns on them. I sometimes see tourists point at them all shocked.