Barbie dolls are a threat? Saudi Arabian males have to keep their women hidden? There’s something wrong with these characters, not the dolls! What would they do with a red-blooded, free-wheeling, sexually precocious woman? Run! Buy her a gift? Get a life, boys! On second thought, get a real woman! Stop playing around with talk of Barbie dolls.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Saudi Arabia's religious police have declared Barbie dolls a threat to morality, complaining that the revealing clothes of the "Jewish" toy - already banned in the kingdom - are offensive to Islam.
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A spokesman for the committee [The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice], which is an arm of the Saudi government, said the campaign against Barbie - banned for more than 10 years - coincides with the start of the school year to remind children and their parents of the doll's negative qualities. [And Canada needs Wahhabi schools to bring the message here?]
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Sheik Abdulla al-Merdas, a preacher in a Riyadh mosque, said the muttawa, the committee's enforcers, take their anti-Barbie campaign to the shops, confiscating dolls from sellers and imposing a fine.
"It is no problem that little girls play with dolls. But these dolls should not have the developed body of a woman and wear revealing clothes," al-Merdas said.
"These revealing clothes will be imprinted in their minds and they will refuse to wear the clothes we are used to as Muslims."
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Women in Saudi Arabia must cover themselves from head to toe with a black cloak in public. They are not allowed to drive and cannot go out in public unaccompanied by a male family member.
Other items listed as violations on the site included Valentine's Day gifts, perfume bottles in the shape of women's bodies, clothing with logos that include a cross, and decorative copies of religious items or text - offensive because they could be damaged and thus insult Islam.
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The committee acts as a monitoring and punishing agency, propagating conservative Islamic beliefs according to the teachings of the puritan Wahhabi sect, adhered to the kingdom since the 18th century, and enforcing strict moral code.
My Commentary:
***"These revealing clothes will be imprinted in their minds and they will refuse to wear the clothes we are used to as Muslims." ***
Aha! The crux of the problem! They are afraid the children--and perhaps even the women--might get ideas. They should be so lucky! No wonder you’ll find these oil sheikhs in the bars of the world trying to pick up women. I once travelled with a group which included a woman, a doctor, who called to me from a bar in the Taj Hotel in Bombay to come and join her—which I declined—although I did lose out on a nifty gift—a token of their affection. I left her seated in the hotel bar with at least four of these white-robed, lusty characters. She departed our group and “would fly to Delhi and meet us there”. The next time I saw her at the Ashoka Hotel she was sporting a new diamond, ruby and emerald bracelet. Perhaps if these guys allowed their women a little freedom they wouldn’t be looking for women in the bars of the world. But then, our deprived women would lose out on gold, gem-studded bracelets—and other things.
Ah, yes, the Wahhabi sect again! A friend has warned me that this post is too “hot” to post. Reason enough to post it, I say. Our politically correct government already hides enough truth from us—the way they did with Bill Sampson’s torture. Truth is no defence in Canada, of course. In the blogosphere, I’ve been told I can publish anything my fiendish heart desires. Testing. . . .
