There's another doll being sold in the Mid East currently-she's called Fulla & she too comes with abayas & headscarves. I'm not particularly fond of Barbie's proportions, nor these dolls, but Barbie's definitely the lesser of the two evils. Barbie will probably influence little girls that its neccessary to have an impossibly thin waisted buxom figure to be considered beautiful by society, Fulla will teach them to be cover every inch of their bodies coz men are like wild beasts, unable to control their desires, & its girls' responsibility to dress up like walking talking genitals, rather than men's responsibility to practice self restraint.
Neither of these dolls are perfect role models.Surely there should be some middle path between these two extremes?
www.nytimes.com/2005/09/22/international/middleeast/22doll.htmlIMO, a large part of this anxiety amongst Muslims to preserve their "culture" comes from the unfortunate fact that inspite of their phenomenal demographic growth via birthrates, their culture is finding few takers in the outside world. Japan did not have to ban Disney to make anime popular, anime managed to get a mass following even in U.S.A. without any compulsion. However, abayas aren't selling anywhere else in the world except amongst Muslims, & even innocuous dolls like Barbie are enticing Muslim little girls' away from puritanical Islamic values.
Globalization is a certainty in today's world, & cultures unable to survive this upheaval are slowly but surely vanquished & while this process has gone on since prehjstory, today it goes on at a frenetic phase due to mass communications. Islamic culture, abayas, beards, ban on alcohol will unlikely survive this great upheaval, the sorting out of winners & losers which is what causes these fears amongst the Muslims.
Hopefully more & more Barbies, Hollywood movies, pornography & miniskirts will break down the gates of Islamic puritanism-& the li'l girls in Iran 60 years later will briefly turn from their (much more technologically advanced from today) bikini wearing Barbies to cast a curious glance at the photographs of their peculiarly dressed grandparents-while their miniskirt wearing mommies & alcohol drinking Daddies-who often aren't even married to their mommies will heave a sigh of relief that the repressive culture which imprisoned them for so long has gone with the wind!
Topic: Dara and Sara - The Islamic Ken and Barbie