Ironically, as oil prices go up in America and many Middle Eastern countries experience a surge in disposable income, so too does the demand for importation of “dangerous” Western toys, particularly Barbie dolls. Last week, Iranian Prosecuter General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi said that such importation was a danger to the cultural values of the next generation.
However, who is it that’s buying them? Iran is said to be the 3rd largest importer of toys in the world. While importing Western toys in Iran isn’t necessarily “illegal” it is discouraged, and more so in recent years as importation continues to increase rapidly. Other dolls that are discouraged, according to a recent AP article, include Batman, Harry Potter, and Spiderman.
To fend this growing tide for Western dolls, in 2002, Iranian authorities launched an anti-Barbie campaign and took the ones they could find off the shelves, while at the same time launching a new version of Barbie--the twins Dara and Sara which were intended to promote traditional values with modest clothing and family stories. But the campaign was a bust. And Barbie’s back again—in even greater numbers.
A story from our archives in 2006 addressed the issues of Barbie in the Middle East and United States and in many ways, is even more relevant today. Here’s an excerpt:
With all of the attention on the Middle East—we’re talking about Michael Jackson moving to Dubai, the X Games debut, and the massive indoor ski resort in the Middle East’s largest shopping mall--we thought we’d mention the latest in “urban vinyl” that’s thriving among young girls: Fulla, the Hijab-wearing Barbie. When Saudi Arabia outlawed the disproportionately hot American babe Barbie in 2003, something had to come in her place. Fulla is Barbie-dollesque but her outdoor clothing range is mostly comprised of abayas and matching head scarves. Cool accessories include a pink felt prayer mat.
Created in Syria by New Boy Design Studio, Fulla has spin-offs in counties such as Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq in the form of Fulla cereal, Fulla gum, Fulla backpacks, and pink Fulla bikes.
While there are other hijab-wearing Barbies, such as Mattel’s Leila, Iran’s Sara and Dara, and Razanne targeted to Muslims in the United States, Fulla blows them all away in terms of overall revenue generators—and that’s without even having a Ken-doll for arm candy. However according to a recent New YorkTimes article, not everyone sees Fulla as such a positive influence. Maan Abdul Salam, a Syrian women's rights advocate, said Fulla was emblematic of a trend toward Islamic conservatism sweeping the Middle East. Though statistics are hard to come by, he said, the percentage of young Arab women who wear the hijab is far higher now than it was a decade ago, and though many girls are wearing it by choice, others are being pressured to do so.
"If this doll had come out 10 years ago, I don't think it would have been very popular," he said. "Fulla is part of this great cultural shift."
"Syria used to be a very secular country," he added, "but when people don't have anything to believe in anymore, they turn toward religion."
Obviously this is a problematic shift among young women, as we’ve seen in the suburbs of Paris and parts of Amsterdam with growing numbers of immigrant families that have not assimilated with their new countries. Aspects of Middle Eastern culture have also moved into youth culture fashion among young females in the United States—not in terms of the Fulla “pink” or in a negative way per se, but in the absorption of Arabic script in accessories and jewelry, scarves, and T-shirt graphics. Maybe Fulla mobile phones are on the horizon, which would help speed communication patterns, and in so doing, result in another shift of a religious paradigm for a new more mobile and communicative generation. Leave it to plastic doll to shake things up for the future.
