Jihad vs. Barbie
Anti-Barbie mullahs will have to get in line behind our own progressive anti-Barbists, but apparently they share common cause on this, as well as the US-out-of-Iraq thing. Important toy news out of Tehran, where they’re cracking down on decadent, culturally dangerous western playthings. NYT:
Iran’s prosecutor general railed on Sunday against the invasion of Barbie, Batman, Spider-Man and Harry Potter and demanded that the country’s young be protected against them … Urging measures to safeguard “Islamic culture and revolutionary values,” the prosecutor, Ghorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi, was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying: “Promoting figures like Barbie, Batman, Spider-Man and Harry Potter and the uncontrolled import of CDs of video games and films should alarm all the country’s officials. We need to find substitutes to ward off this onslaught, which aims at children and young people whose personality is in the process of being formed … These toys, which do not respect the required norms, present dangers for the health of children and affect the survival of toy factories in this country.” … Two years ago the police raided toy shops and put black stickers on the packaging of Barbie dolls to hide their bodies. Barbie contravenes Iran’s rule that women must cover all bodily contours. Iran’s rivals to Barbie and her partner, Ken, are Sara and Dara, who respect Islamic rules but do not enjoy Barbie’s popularity.
Black stickers? Hey Mattel! When are you going to come out with a culturally sensitive Burkha Barbie?
Prior, related and unrelated, re women’s issues, Islam, toys, etc.:
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:54 pm on Monday, April 28, 2008
4 Responses to “Jihad vs. Barbie”
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April 29th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Spider-Man is Unstoppable
The crackdown on Western-made toys in Iran would be funnier, were it not a microcosmic view into the paranoid mindset of the revolutionary regime in Tehran. Immediately following Pahlavi’s departure, a counter-cultural riot of sorts played out…
April 29th, 2008 at 11:09 am
[...] crackdown on Western-made toys in Iran would be funnier, were it not a microcosmic view into the paranoid mindset of the revolutionary [...]
April 29th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Barbie, Batman, Spider-Man and Harry Potter are why the West is going to win. Besides, this pure-minded prosecutor tipped his hand with this:
These toys, which do not respect the required norms, present dangers for the health of children and affect the survival of toy factories in this country.
They can promote all the virtue and condemn all the vice they want, but when it comes right down to it, the bottom line is what matters.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:55 am
And to think that Ayatollah Khomeini said that there were no jokes in Islam.