Iran: Morality Police Cracking Down on Barbie Dolls

H/T – TNR

Iran cracks down on Barbie, plans toys of captured U.S. drone

Reuters  Jan 16, 2012 – By Mitra Amiri

TEHRAN — Iran’s morality police are cracking down on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values, shopkeepers said on Monday.

[…]

“About three weeks ago they [the morality police] came to our shop, asking us to remove all the Barbies,” said a shopkeeper in a toy shop in northern Tehran.

[…]

The new order, issued around three weeks ago, forced shopkeepers to hide the leggy, busty blonde behind other toys as a way of meeting popular demand for the dolls while avoiding being closed down by the police.

A range of officially approved dolls launched in 2002 to counter demand for Barbie have not proven successful, merchants told Reuters.

The dolls named Sara, a female, and Dara, a male arrived in shops wearing a variety of traditional dress, with Sara fully respecting the rule that all women in Iran must obey in public, of covering their hair and wearing loose-fitting clothes.

“My daughter prefers Barbies. She says Sara and Dara are ugly and fat,” said Farnaz , a 38-year-old mother, adding that she could not find Barbie cartoon DVDs as she was told they were also banned from public sale.

Agreed!  BTW – I wonder how much the plastic surgery will cost to enlarge one’s head when Iranian girls begin experiencing inferiority complexes over having such small craniums:

Note:  Language/Sexual Content Warning – If you have small children, turn down the sound immediately following the Onion report on the Bratz Dolls (when the reporter starts talking about the Lexus recall).

[…]

As another swipe at the West, Iranians will soon be able to buy toy versions of the U.S. spy drone that it captured in December, Iranian media reported.

Models of the bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel — which Iran’s military displayed on TV after it was downed near the Afghan border — will be mass produced in a variety of colours, reports said.

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