No more Barbie dolls in Iran

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Police have closed down dozens of toy shops for selling Barbie dolls, part of a decades-long crackdown on signs of Western culture in Iran, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported Friday.

Mehr quoted an unnamed police official as saying police confiscated Barbie dolls from toy shops in Tehran in a “new phase” of its crackdown against “manifestations of Western culture.”

Barbie dolls are sold wearing swimsuits and miniskirts in a society where women must wear head scarves in public, and men and women are not allowed to swim together.

A ban on the sale of Barbie dolls, designed to look like young Western women, was imposed in the mid-1990s.

In 1996, a government-backed children’s agency called Barbie a “Trojan horse” sneaking in Western influences like makeup and revealing clothes.

Authorities launched a campaign of confiscating Barbie dolls from toy shops in 2002, denouncing what they called the un-Islamic characteristics of the uniquely American doll. The campaign was eventually dropped.

Also in 2002, Iran introduced its own competing dolls – twins Dara and Sara – who were designed to promote traditional values with modest clothing and pro-family stories. But the dolls proved unable to stem the Barbie tide.

Despite bans on many Western books, movies, satellite TV channels, music, haircuts and fashions, young people maintain their interest in Western culture.

Even channels of Iran’s state TV broadcast several Western and Hollywood films every week. Islamists have repeatedly tried to fight what they see as a Western cultural “invasion” since 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted a pro-Western monarchy.

Since then, importing Western toys has been discouraged by a regime that seeks to protect Iranians from what it calls the negative effects of Western culture.

In 2008, the Iranian judiciary warned against the “destructive” cultural and social consequences and “danger” of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys.

Even so, Iranian markets have been full of Western toys aimed at Iranian children. One-third of Iran’s population of 75 million is under 15 years old.

AP

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30 responses to “No more Barbie dolls in Iran”

  1. Hannibal Avatar

    Damn I’d better sell my stock in Mattel… lol

  2. Damn I’d better sell my stock in Mattel… lol

  3. did you guys hear of divorce barbie?… it comes with all the stuff that used to belong to ken

    1. Hannibal Avatar

      lol good one

    2. Hannibal Avatar

      lol good one

    3. LOL!

  4. did you guys hear of divorce barbie?… it comes with all the stuff that used to belong to ken

    1.  Avatar

      LOL!

  5. dabshaleem Avatar
    dabshaleem

    barbie dalls ar no goood it mak me excitead 

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      In your case, I believe that. 😉

    2. If you get exited that fast man what are you doing here on this Earth where in heaven 72 virgins waiting for you if you explode yourself and kill people around you. I would not wait a minute those poor ugly virgins(A beautiful woman hardly can stay virgin) need an exiting man like you Dabshaleem. Sorry I am only joking.

    3. If you get exited that fast man what are you doing here on this Earth where in heaven 72 virgins waiting for you if you explode yourself and kill people around you. I would not wait a minute those poor ugly virgins(A beautiful woman hardly can stay virgin) need an exiting man like you Dabshaleem. Sorry I am only joking.

    4. you are right dab, barbie is baaad 2 barbies are better 😉

  6.  Avatar

    barbie dalls ar no goood it mak me excitead 

    1.  Avatar

      In your case, I believe that. 😉

    2.  Avatar

      If you get exited that fast man what are you doing here on this Earth where in heaven 72 virgins waiting for you if you explode yourself and kill people around you. I would not wait a minute those poor ugly virgins(A beautiful woman hardly can stay virgin) need an exiting man like you Dabshaleem. Sorry I am only joking.

    3. you are right dab, barbie is baaad 2 barbies are better 😉

  7. 5thDrawer Avatar

    As long as everything is covered in black rags, I guess it’s ok.
     In Pakistan there’s Acid-face Fatima; Stone-supply Abdul is popular in many places where Talibanies rule; while RPG Benny is super-popular everywhere in the ME schoolyards.
    Irradiated Irena coming soon to Tehran toy-shops. You don’t want to see her, but she doubles as a winter hand-warmer.

  8.  Avatar

    As long as everything is covered in black rags, I guess it’s ok.
     In Pakistan there’s Acid-face Fatima; Stone-supply Abdul is popular in many places where Talibanies rule; while RPG Benny is super-popular everywhere in the ME schoolyards.
    Irradiated Irena coming soon to Tehran toy-shops. You don’t want to see her, but she doubles as a winter hand-warmer.

  9.  Avatar

    The Iran game is a little larger than this. Iran is one of 3 nations that actually owns its central bank along with Cuba and Vietnam. Guess what other nation owned central banks up until a few years ago, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan and a few years and wars later they now have central banks owned by the rothschild family and issues currency on a debt rate. Its weird how we all follow blindly

  10.  Avatar

    The Iran game is a little larger than this. Iran is one of 3 nations that actually owns its central bank along with Cuba and Vietnam. Guess what other nation owned central banks up until a few years ago, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan and a few years and wars later they now have central banks owned by the rothschild family and issues currency on a debt rate. Its weird how we all follow blindly

  11. FadiAbboud Avatar
    FadiAbboud

    lets have some more if this close-minded thinking Iranian influence in Lebanon and close ourselves to the rest of the modern world all in the name of our “enemy” Israel ( sarcasm )

  12.  Avatar

    lets have some more if this close-minded thinking Iranian influence in Lebanon and close ourselves to the rest of the modern world all in the name of our “enemy” Israel ( sarcasm )

    1.  Avatar

      Too bad you feel the need to explain to some in here that you are using sarcasm. 😉

  13. Since Iran imports most of its technology from the West they have to import lifestyle too some how if they like West’s invention you have to start liking their Dolls too man that’s discrimination don’t you think so it comes in a palet a package deal, you wear their pants but not the ties of the West you like what their brains creat but you do not like them, do you think this is hypocrisy?

  14. Since Iran imports most of its technology from the West they have to import lifestyle too some how if they like West’s invention you have to start liking their Dolls too man that’s discrimination don’t you think so it comes in a palet a package deal, you wear their pants but not the ties of the West you like what their brains creat but you do not like them, do you think this is hypocrisy?

  15.  Avatar

    Since Iran imports most of its technology from the West they have to import lifestyle too some how if they like West’s invention you have to start liking their Dolls too man that’s discrimination don’t you think so it comes in a palet a package deal, you wear their pants but not the ties of the West you like what their brains creat but you do not like them, do you think this is hypocrisy?

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