COMMENTARY | The Iranian Morality Police has uncovered a new enemy of Islam, who is insidiously working to corrupt the morals of the Islamic Republic's young girls, according to Reuters. It is cracking down to prevent this from happening.
The enemy of purity is the Barbie doll , apparently popular with young girls in Iran as she is everywhere else.
Barbie has been banned in Iran since 1996, but has been carried in Iranian toy stores hidden in the back in order to meet popular demand. The approved dolls for young Iranian girls are Sara and Dara, a female and male, who wear the approved clothing, with Sara keeping her hair covered and her body concealed with a chador. Dara is considered "fat and ugly" by discerning Iranian girls.
Barbie, who has been around since 1959, has been subject to criticism in the past. The slender waisted, big bosomed doll has been accused by some of creating an unrealistic body image for young girls. The BBC reported that the chance of a real life woman achieving the physical dimensions of a Barbie doll was about one in 100,000, not impossible, but very difficult and potentially hazardous to one's health.
Clearly one advantage of adhering to the Islamically correct Sara doll is that no one is going to risk anorexia attempting to be like her.
Clearly this crackdown against Barbie dolls in Iran is an outgrowth of the shame culture that the Islamic Republic has been fostering every since it was established in 1979. That it takes a huge secret police apparatus to enforce demonstrates how little regard most Iranians have for it. Any form of morality that requires repressive laws and equally repressive police to enforce is not morality at all. But it is a phenomenon in many Islamic countries where mosque and state are not separated, but one in the same.
The sort of psychological damage this repression is causing is something that mental health professionals will no doubt debate forever. If (when) the Islamic Republic is overthrown, the reaction is going to be something to watch.
Finally, there is no word on what the official Islamic view on Ken or especially GI Joe is.
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