Fresh Cut Flower Friday: Barbie Wears a Head Scarf

Okay, so this Friday post has nothing really to do with fresh cut flowers, but it is an interesting story. While in Egypt, we spent an afternoon shopping in Cairo's oldest and most famous bazaar, the Khan Al-Khalili. As we were heading out, I spotted two young Muslim school girls walking arm-in-arm through the market. At that moment my camera was in one of the husband's pockets, so I sort of whisper-yelled for him to quickly get my camera. You see, both of the girls had typical backpacks just like you'd see on any average American school girl, plastic with characters. What caught my eye though was that one of the backpacks was a Barbie backpack and in her headshot on the back of the backpack, Barbie was wearing a head scarf, just like both of the girls. We have all seen Barbie take on many roles over the years, but for me, this was a new one. I didn't know that Barbie had ventured into religion. I thought it was interesting that these two little girls see Barbie as being a Muslim woman who wears a head scarf. Obviously Barbie has been quite controversial at times, the shape of her body and the roles she takes on have been discussed and debated since I was a little girl and I'm sure even before then. If I remember correctly from a special I watched on tv a long time ago, the inspiration for the first Barbie doll even came from a pornographic German doll from the 30's or 40's. I guess for once it's nice to see Barbie decide to take a conservative high road so that she can be a part of the playtime of little girls in the Middle East. It's stuff like this that makes visiting another culture kind of fascinating...I wish I could have seen what Barbie was wearing as an actual doll. Would she take on the more conservative Muslim ideal of a loose, flowing robe, or would she be like the more moderate Muslim girls I saw who wore head scarves with their jeans and tops? Maybe there are different versions...I wasn't in Egypt long enough to find out.