Iran cracks down on Barbie in battle against Western influence
IRANIAN police have targetted dozens of shops selling Barbie dolls in the latest campaign against the spread of Western decadence in the Islamic republic.
The embattled Iranian regime wages an unceasing war against the encroachments of Western influence. Islamic laws require women to protect their modesty will all enveloping clothing.
However Iranian girls, like their counterparts in the West, have grown up on dressing Barbie dolls in tight fitting clothing and hair styling.
Mehr news agency said police confiscated Barbie dolls from toy shops in Tehran in a "new phase" of its crackdown.
Police have previously sought to ban manekins from shop windows as too revealing and an affront to women's modesty.
The stated aim is to fight Western cultural influence.
Since 1979 Islamic Revolution, Islamists have repeatedly tried to fight what they see as a Western cultural "invasion."
A ban on sale of Barbie dolls, designed to look like young Western women, was imposed in the mid-1990s.
Despite bans on many Western books, movies, music, haircuts and fashions, young people maintain their interest in Western culture.
- Damien McElroy
© Telegraph.co.uk
