- To many hard-line clerics in Iran, the
most insidious cultural threat to the values of the Islamic revolution
comes in a hot pink box and sits on toyshop shelves.
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- Barbie, with her curvaceous body, miniskirts,
and platinum-blond hair, hardly represents the Islamic image of women fostered
in Iran. Here, women must cover their hair in public. Lipstick is a sign
of defiance.
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- But the American icon - which is one
of the most sought-after toys worldwide - is a big hit with Iranian girls.
Despite Iran officially being a closed society, Barbie is sold on the open
market. It's led some to say that Barbie is heading up an unwanted "cultural
invasion" from the West that has also brought hamburgers and Hollywood.
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- Iranian officials raced to turn out an
acceptable, Islamic answer to Barbie in time for the 20th anniversary of
the revolution, which was Feb. 11. But the production date for Sara and
her brother Dara has been set back to spring for lack of "suitable
hair."
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- "About Barbie, we not only think
it is not good for our children here, we think it is not suitable for American
children," says Majid Qaderi, a director at the Institute of Children
and Young Adults Development Center in Tehran, which has designed the new
dolls.
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- But Barbie nevertheless is being groomed
for abroad. Jill Barad, the chief executive of Mattel Inc., which is based
in El Segundo, Calif., and makes Barbie, has made a major push to expand
into global markets.
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- In Mr. Qaderi's view, Barbie dolls "only
teach consumerism" and cause children to grow up too fast. "Bad
influences" include profligate dress, makeup, and an example of "unlimited
freedom of relationships ... between boys and girls."
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- "Barbie is a symbol of American
culture," says Qaderi. "The first thing we can do is teach our
children about who they are [as Iranians], about their own culture....
We have to act in a way that the kids themselves reject the bad part [of
Western culture] and absorb the good part."
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- 'Westernization' of Iran
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- Barbie dolls are not the only American
influence on the lives of Iranians, who had a long experience with Western
culture prior to the 1979 revolution. That watershed event was in part
a violent reaction to the extensive "Westernization" of Iranian
society by Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi.
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- The result was a theocratic Islamic regime
that sought to restrict outside influence on Iranians. Now, Western movies
and music are prohibited.
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- But many Iranians had seen the blockbuster
film "Titanic" within a week of its release in the United States
last year - often watching bootleg videotapes that had been shot with a
hand-held camcorder in a movie theater. Western music is another hot commodity:
Sometimes smugglers hide as many as 30 CDs under their clothing. And the
popularity of hamburgers, pizza, and imitation Nike shoes means that countering
this "invasion" has been difficult.
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- For children, the American influence
is quite apparent: Barbie dolls, which cost $25 to $30 each, share shelf
space with videos and toys that range from Batman and Power Rangers to
Snow White and Pocahontas.
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- "So much of the discussion of a
'cultural invasion' is useless, with the expansion of global communications,
satellite TV, the Internet, and so much information," says Bobak,
a toyshop owner in downtown Tehran.
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- "If we really care about this 'cultural
invasion,' we should be strong enough to influence our own culture, instead
of being afraid of [Western] influence on us," he says.
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- The Iranian Sara and Dara dolls are meant
to do just that, Qaderi says. They have an "eastern look" with
brown hair and brown eyes, and Sara wears a removable head covering called
a "hijab" that shows only the face.
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- Though in Iran these are almost always
worn in dark colors, Sara will have several bright choices. She will have
a handful of costumes of different ethnic groups in Iran, and - in a compromise
that mirrors her American counterpart - she will come with a comb.
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- There will also be Sara-Dara computer
games, musical tapes, and a storybook. "Children really don't care
much [whether they play with an Islamic doll]," says Qaderi. "They
don't make as big an issue out of it as we adults are making."
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- But at an international trade fair in
Tehran last fall, children lined up to learn about the new dolls.
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- Interest was high, officials and toyshop
owners say, because any new toy on the market is met with excitement, and
because children are more familiar with the hijab-clad Sara in their daily
lives than with the partygoing Western Barbie.
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- Still, "The walls are crumbling
down. It's been a gradual erosion," says a Western diplomat in Tehran.
Some three years ago, Iranian girls wore pictures of Mickey Mouse on their
dark gowns during an official march. "You have a more educated population
here than neighboring countries, which increases the appetite for world
culture."
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- Finding good in Western culture
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- Despite warnings from Iranian extremists
about the myriad plots hatched by the "Great Satan" - as some
here still call the US - the moderate President Mohamad Khatami has made
clear that Iran can learn from and find good in Western civilization, in
concert with the depth of its own 2,500-year history.
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- Differentiating between good and bad
aspects of Western culture may be the key to harnessing the taste for it,
instead of a total rejection of anything Western, some Iranians say.
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- "A 'cultural invasion' may come,
but it comes divided into both good and bad," says a young office
worker in Tehran. "Technical expertise and research are an invasion?
If so, why not have that? Bad things might come, but in your culture movies
are not [necessarily] a bad thing. They are used to inform your people."
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- Qaderi recognizes that no amount of effort
can shut off Western cultural influence in Iran. The key is to provide
young Iranians with the foundation to judge for themselves.
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- "The children of the world all belong
to one nation, but the authorities in each country are responsible for
those in their own society," he says. "Indeed, we were scared
about [the 'cultural invasion']," but now he concludes that "we
don't need to be that fearful because we have the capability of confronting
it."
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