TOYS Muslims welcome alternative Barbie doll
A Syrian invented Fulla, a fashionable, modest doll.
TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Barbie, the busty plastic doll with the outfit for every mood, has seen and done a lot in her 46 years: She's been a rock star, an astronaut and a candidate for president of the United States. But one thing the blond bombshell could never claim to represent was Muslim values.
Into that breach now has stepped Fulla, a doll built on roughly the same chassis as Barbie but with her vinyl feet more firmly grounded in the cultural realities of the Arab world.
With black hair, auburn eyes and a wide selection of head scarves, she's Mecca to Barbie's Malibu. She even comes with her own prayer rug.
The brainchild of Syrian entrepreneur Manar Tarabichi, Fulla has become a marketing phenomenon from Morocco to Iraq since being launched two years ago, taking over the main display areas in toy stores and sidelining the ageless U.S. idol. Fulla's an especially big hit in Saudi Arabia, where Barbie was banned several years ago by a government that disapproved of her "revealing clothes and shameful postures."
Differences
The two dolls would likely have a hard time understanding each other. Barbie, of course, is a notorious party girl who likes to prance around in a bikini and spend a lot of her time in the company of her boy-toy Ken. Fulla, who prefers the full head-to-toe abaya, has no male friends, although her creators are planning to add a protective brother some time in the next year.
"Fulla is one of us. She's my sister; she's my mother; she's my wife. She's all the traditional things of Syria and the Middle East. Barbie, to us, is a foreigner," said Mohammed Sabbagh, manager of Spacetoon, a toy outlet in Damascus. He said he once stocked his shelves with Barbie but now carries only some of the accessories. Fulla, he said, was outselling her by a 40-to-1 margin at his store.
"I like her clothes," said Alaa Masoud, 9, with a smile. She said she already had eight Fulla dolls and was shopping at Spacetoon for a ninth. She said she also owned two Barbies, but "Fulla is prettier." Alaa was wearing a Fulla jean jacket over a pink Fulla sweatshirt.
Like Barbie, Fulla -- who is named after a type of jasmine that grows in the Levant -- has a wide range of clothing and fashion accessories at her disposal. There are no bare arms, legs or cleavage, however, and everything except the black abaya and another outfit featuring a white head scarf and ankle-length coat is dubbed "indoor fashion" on the box.
"In this market, parents don't want Barbie for their kids. The way she dresses is not how Arab women dress. The values she conveys are not values that Arab parents want to convey to their kids," said Fawaz Abidin, who manages the Fulla brand for Tarabichi's company, NewBoy Design Studio.
"Fulla is loving, caring. She is respectful and modest. She loves fashion, but in a modest way. ... She's not extreme in her fashion, in her way of dress."
The company, he said, pays attention to regional differences. Dolls with a less strict dress code sell better in more liberal countries such as Jordan and Egypt, while Saudi Arabia and the Gulf kingdoms are the target market for the more conservative fashions.
Like Barbie, the doll is mass-produced in China. The two dolls are made of the same material and are the same height, 111/2 inches.