THE director of the Rape Crisis Centre and the chairwoman of Women's Aid have described the cover of the most recent issue of Business and Finance as offensive.
The cover, illustrating a story on exchange rate policy, shows a large boot coming down on a prone, scantly dressed woman. The caption said: "The big squeeze. How exchange rate policy is crushing Irish business.
In a letter to the editor of The Irish Times, Ms Olive Braiden, of the Rape Crisis Centre, said the centre was "appalled and outraged by the image displayed" on the cover of the magazine. "Display and promotion of images of violent acts such as this is totally unacceptable."
Ms Roisin McDermott, of Woman's Aid, said the cover was "offensive, inappropriate and extremely dangerous". She said the editorial team had failed to realise that we are living in a climate of extreme violence against women.
Ms McDermott said: "The attitude to women and the flippant use of such an aggressive image demonstrates just how seriously this publication takes the number of women being `crushed' in Ireland today.
"As an organisation that deals with the horror of violent crimes against women on a daily basis, we would ask the editor of Business and Finance to justify or even explain the use of this image."
Efforts to contact the editor of Business and Finance last night were unsuccessful.