Saudi police say Barbie dolls a threat to morality

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/09/10/saudi.barbie.ap/index.html

Saudi Arabia's religious police have declared Barbie dolls a threat to morality, complaining that the revealing clothes of the "Jewish" toy -- already banned in the kingdom -- are offensive to Islam.

The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as the religious police are officially known, lists the dolls on a section of its Web site devoted to items deemed offensive to the conservative Saudi interpretation of Islam.

"Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful," said a poster on the site.

The poster, plastered with pictures of Barbie in short dresses and tight pants, and with a few of her accessories, reads: "A strange request. A little girl asks her mother: Mother, I want jeans, a low-cut shirt, and a swimsuit like Barbie."

When anybody has enough time to sit around and ponder the morality of Barbie dolls than you know something isn't right.

I see a parallel here:
U.S. protects Saudis by blaming someone else for 9/ll.
Saudis protect U.S. by blaming someone else for immoral Barbie.

There needs to be an Islamic Barbie-doll.

with 3-4 different colored burqas (a hijab for the more progressive islamic people) let's see black, white, blue, and brown ?

that and you can accessorize with little stick on bruises and welts for when Islamic Barbie "walks too loudly" or leaves the house without a male relative. You know those random encounters with their "Moral" Police (i forget what they are actually called).

From Michigan.





Jenna Debryn sits next to her Razanne doll at her home in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., Aug. 27, 2003. Razanne is all about modesty and piety compared to Barbie's gelled and buffon-coiffed beau flaunts. The doll fills not only a marketing void, but also offers Muslim girls someone with whom they can relate. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030903/168/55gsj.html

"In 1994, an unofficial biography revealed that Barbie was modeled on a German cartoon character, an ambitious hooker named Lilli...M.G. Lord, the author of "Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll," is one of those women. In "Forever Barbie," Lord reveals that Lilli -- "an eleven-and-a-half inch, platinum ponytailed" German doll -- was the pre-American Barbie. The Lilli doll was the three-dimensional version of a popular post-war cartoon character who first appeared in the West German tabloid Bild Zeitung in 1952. A professional floozy of the first order, Bild Zeitung's Lilli traded sex for money, delivered sassy comebacks to police officers, and sought the company of "balding, jowly fatcats," says Lord. While the cartoon Lilli was a user of men, the doll (who came into existence in 1955) was herself a plaything -- a masculine joke, perhaps, for West German males who could not afford to play with a real Lilli. A German brochure from the 1950s confided that Lilli (the doll) was "always discreet," while her complete wardrobe made her "the star of every bar."


http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1997/11/26harlot.html

Barbie dolls. I gave my daughters blocks and legos and puzzles and games and books and musical instruments. I encouraged them to participate in sports. I'm glad that my daughters chose not to spend much time with the Barbies. Both daughters now have good careers--and husbands who treat them with respect and love.

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