Iran calls for ban on Barbie doll

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frigidmagi
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#1 Iran calls for ban on Barbie doll

Post by frigidmagi »

BBC
Iran's top prosecutor has called for restrictions in the import of Western toys, saying they have a destructive effect on the country's youth.

The Prosecutor General, Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi, said that toys such as Barbie, Batman, and Harry Potter would have negative social consequences.

Mr Najafabadi wants measures taken to protect what he called Iran's Islamic culture and revolutionary values.

Correspondents say Western culture is becoming increasingly popular in Iran.

Mr Najafabadi's comments were made in a letter addressed to Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi, and quoted in several Iranian newspapers.

"The displays of personalities such as Barbie, Batman, Spiderman and Harry Potter... as well as the irregular importation of unsanctioned computer games and movies are all warning bells to officials in the cultural arena," he wrote, according to a copy of the letter seen by Associated Press.

"The irregular importation of such toys, which unfortunately arrive through unofficial sources and smuggling, is destructive culturally and a social danger," he said.

The BBC's Pam O'Toole in Tehran says the increasing popularity of Western culture has been causing concern in Iran's clerical establishment for years.

Revealing

Mr Najafabadi, a high-ranking cleric, said Iran was the world's third biggest importer of toys, with many more being smuggled into the country.

In the past, Barbie dolls have been targeted by Iranian authorities bridling at their revealing dress.

In public Iranian women must cover their bodily contours - a rule, correspondents point out, that Barbie conspicuously fails to follow.

"We need to find substitutes to ward off this onslaught, which aims at children and young people whose personality is in the process of being formed," Mr Najafabadi said.

Iran has made previous, unsuccessful, attempts to find substitutes for such toys.

A modestly-dressed version of Barbie and her partner Ken - named Sara and Dara - launched by Iran did not manage to counter the popularity of the Western version.
BUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present for your amusement a culture so weak, so insecure and unable to appeal to its own young that it is threatened by the very toys of outsiders.
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#2

Post by LadyTevar »

Barbie has Freedom! Not only of clothes, but of her very own Way of Life! She can be anyone she wants to be, hold any job she wishes to take! She Will Prevail!

:lol:
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#3

Post by Batman »

My heart bleeds for the clerics. Valen forbid people actually pick the culture THEY want.
It's obviously a nefarious plot by the west to eradicate Iranian culture and has nothing whatsoever to do with Iranian culture, at least as the Clerics want to promote it, stinking to high Heaven.

And I'm a threat to Iranian culture but the Kryptonian Icon is not? I should get MONTHS of amusement out of that :grin: I can't wait for the next JLA meeting :razz:
Last edited by Batman on Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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