Dara and Sara—Iran’s Islamic Alternative to Ken And Barbie
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Islam for Today, n.d.
The Muslim dolls have been developed by a government agency to promote traditional values, with their modest clothing and pro-family backgrounds.
They are widely seen as an effort to counter the American dolls and accessories that have flooded the Iranian market
Toy seller Masoumeh Rahimi welcomed the dolls, saying Barbie was “foreign to Iran’s culture” because some of the buxom, blonde dolls have revealing clothing.
She said young girls who play with Barbie, a doll she sees as wanton, could grow into women who reject Iranian values.
“I think every Barbie doll is more harmful than an American missile,” Ms Rahimi said.
Dara and Sara were born as characters in school books and their lives have also grown in stories that are being sold on cassette along with the dolls.
They have been developed and are being marketed by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, a government agency affiliated with the Ministry of Education.
An Iranian woman looks at the Sara (L) and Dara dolls
Toy sellers are welcoming the new characters
The siblings help each other solve problems and turn to their loving parents for guidance.
The children are supposed to be eight years old, young enough under Islamic law for Sara to appear in public without a headscarf.
But each of the four models of Sara comes with a white scarf to cover her brown or black hair.
Another toy seller, Mehdi Hedayat, said: “Dara and Sara are strategic products to preserve our national identity.
“And of course, it is an answer to Barbie and Ken, which have dominated Iran’s toy market.”
Some 100,000 dolls have been manufactured—in China—and each will sell for 125,000 rials ($15) compared with 332,000 rials for a genuine Barbie and 25,000 rials for a copy.
   Sara (left) and Dara. |
(Posted on September 25, 2008)
Comments
I’ve been saying for years now, if we export our culture to the Islamic world, it will spread like a cancer. All we need to do is get the arab kids on video games, and the adults hooked on porn, the struggle is all but over.
Posted by at 6:44 PM on September 25
Well, good for the Iranians. We could use some modesty and morality in our own country. Pornography is a very big business in America, sad to say, and as everyone is aware, even young girls here are encouraged to dress like sluts, and perversions of all kinds are encouraged and celebrated.
Posted by seldomseen at 7:07 PM on September 25
Three cheers for the Iranians. Maybe they can send teachers to the west to show them the importance of caring for one’s own culture.
Posted by Flamethrower at 7:10 PM on September 25
“I’ve been saying for years now, if we export our culture to the Islamic world, it will spread like a cancer. All we need to do is get the arab kids on video games, and the adults hooked on porn, the struggle is all but over.”
Posted by at 6:44 PM on September 25
And another one begins or spreads. I am not all too happy or proud of the garbage culture America has come to represent. It is by the way, led by the wonderful “African American” culture.
Posted by Whiteplight at 8:11 PM on September 25
‘Iranian toy seller: “A Barbie doll is more harmful than an American missile.” ‘
Yes, of course. Just yesterday someone from your side demanded that Mickey Mouse be executed, so now that a fatwa has been issued against Ken and Barbie, can we expect your next target to be Yogi Bear?
Posted by ice at 10:05 PM on September 25
Looking at the bratz dolls that are so popular right now I would tend to agree with the Iranians! This is something that I dont say very lightly since I am a former Muslim.
Posted by Spartan24 at 11:12 PM on September 25
To flamethrower: What can the Iranians teach us about defending our culture? Will they teach us how to take over peaceful embassies and give all the secrets found to the soviet union? Will they teach us how to kill 265 marines and 200 french soldiers on a peacekeeping missing? Will they teach us how to threaten genocide? Iran is the most dangerous nation on the planet. Hell, this is a culture that is terrified of Barbie… and Mickey Mouse. Nowadays, when I look at a Playboy magazine I feel like I am defying the cult of Islam.
I am defending my culture by eating in daylight during Ramadan and I will not eat at an ein de far meal.
If you want to defend your culture, Flamethrower, tell people that you care, that you love them.
Posted by flyingtiger at 1:07 AM on September 26
These dolls resemble the ones sold in 50’s in Europe.
Posted by EW at 4:57 AM on September 26
While I don’t support Islam in any way (other than to say let them do what they want in their own Islamic nations), at least they recognize and take appropriate steps to stop the slide of their culture.
Personally, I’d like to see Dora the Invading Explorer off the air and stop promoting spanish as an acceptable alternative to English in the United States.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 8:38 AM on September 26
“I think every Barbie doll is more harmful than an American missile,” Ms Rahimi said.
Then let’s do a pre-emptive strike by raining 10 million Barbies on their country.
And, if the budget will allow it, 10 million Mickey Mouse toys, too.
If we can defeat them culturally, maybe we won’t need to defeat them militarily.
But make no mistake: one way or another, we WILL have to defeat them. Because nothing short of inflicting a decisive and humiliating defeat on them will EVER stop Iranians/Muslims from trying to inflicting a decisive and humiliating defeat on us.
Posted by at 12:44 PM on September 26
Barbie is grotesque. She isn’t even proportioned like a real woman. Nobody has legs that long in proportion to the rest of them.
The only way Barbie could be more destructive to a girl’s self-image is if she was made with tattoos. A nice “tramp stamp” just above her butt would be perfect.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 3:07 PM on September 26
Hey folks, it’s DOLLS! Can we explain the concept of children’s toys to 3rd world muslems with a 12th century mindset and a rigid so-called “moral code” that considers everything western a “sin” worthy of cutting off a few heads?
Posted by at 3:28 PM on September 26
To flamethrower: What can the Iranians teach us about defending our culture? Will they teach us how to take over peaceful embassies and give all the secrets found to the soviet union? Will they teach us how to kill 265 marines and 200 french soldiers on a peacekeeping missing? Will they teach us how to threaten genocide? Iran is the most dangerous nation on the planet. Hell, this is a culture that is terrified of Barbie… and Mickey Mouse. Nowadays, when I look at a Playboy magazine I feel like I am defying the cult of Islam.
I am defending my culture by eating in daylight during Ramadan and I will not eat at an ein de far meal.
If you want to defend your culture, Flamethrower, tell people that you care, that you love them.
Posted by flyingtiger at 1:07 AM on September 26
————————-
I think you misunderstood my sarcasm. The whole point is that the West neither defends, conserves, or grows its own culture. The marxist west is hell bent on suicide. At least the Iranians want to be Iranians, and as long as they do it in their own country, I don’t have a problem with them. Also I am issuing you a personal fatwa that you no longer have to feel guilty about reading Playboy magazine.
Posted by Flamethrower at 6:37 PM on September 26
Can we explain the concept of children’s toys to 3rd world muslems with a 12th century mindset
Do not be so arrogant. Do not be so patronizing. Iranians are decent people. They are intelligent and in their country you can walk the streets without fear (yeah make fun of that concept, it’s so radical huh? streets without crime are a sign of lesser intelligence!).
Posted by Sonya at 8:55 PM on September 26
Well, I know what it’s like to be NOT wanted, since I am no longer welcome on a certain renegade website that has to do with the world’s being topsy-turvy! So be it!
So I suppose I have a certain similarity to the little plastic provocateur?
Maybe we both put forth hidden agendas: dangerous dynamite in my literary dabblings and pernicious pornography in her eternally unobtainable plastic proportions?
Oh, the wretched treachery!
That being said, God help us both, Barbie and me!
Posted by John PM at 10:35 AM on September 27
The Barbie doll is supposed to be a fashion model who, being a liberated young woman, dabbles in all sorts of high status careers on the side.
Her out-of-proportion body is overly sexual. It is only a doll, but it is indicative of our debased culture that a doll aimed at little girls looks like a porn centerfold.
If the Iranians want to protect their children from our pornographic American culture, more power to them.
Posted by at 3:54 PM on September 27
The Iranians are trying to preserve the positive aspects of their culture that the West seems to have lost decades ago. It’s an uphill struggle and I hope they succeed.
Posted by jewamongyou at 1:23 AM on September 29
To Sonya:
Please don’t make the mistake in thinking that a country is “safe” because you can walk the streets alone at night. You even cite Iran as an example of such a place. Don’t you know that you would be arrested by Iranian police - if not stoned - if you were to wear a pair of shorts in public?
Years ago, when I was in college, there was a student in one of my cclasses who was a Greek national. He was a supporter of the repressive Papadopoulos regime, because he said “you can leave your doors unlocked at night”.
No thanks, Sonya. I’d rather live in the USA, where I’m responsible for my own personal safety, than in a police state regime like Iran. If you want to live in a country where the government is responsible for your “safety”, that’s your choice, and yours alone.
The Second Amendment is the difference between the USA and virtually every other country on Earth.
Posted by Soprano Fan at 11:13 AM on September 29
And the available accessories include a serrated hunting knife for slowly beheading Infidels and a shovel for burying Sara alive in an honor killing if she elects to marry the man of her choice rather than the repulsive aging lunatic chosen for her by her insane father…
Posted by at 4:21 PM on September 29
What the liberals need for their indoctronated globalized children is a Mohammed doll and Aisha (his nine year old bride) doll. The Mohammed doll will have the eyes of a crazed Islamic terrorist and the Aisha (his nine year old bride) doll will be wearing a head to toe black veiled tent…
Posted by at 5:39 PM on September 29