Move Over Barbie, Fulla is Here!

With Barbie banned in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the middle east there was development of a new doll for Arab girls. Fulla, a doll which portrays Muslim culture was created by Manar Tarabichi and his toy company, New Boy Design. He created Fulla to teach young girls Muslim values and give them something more modest to play with. People in the middle east could relate to Fulla and stores were quickly stocked with tons and tons of Fulla dolls and merchandise. An advantage of being able to relate to their dolls is that little girls will now listen and learn the values that their doll is teaching them. With Barbie, girls could end up with low self-esteem trying to look and act the way she is portrayed to. New Boy sold over 1.5 million Fulla dolls in the first two years of "Full-Mania." It even outsold North Americas popular Barbie at a 40-to-1 ratio. Unlike some Barbies, all Fulla dolls are fully covered and it is easy to see that she is portrayed as being modest while Barbie portrays the wild, party girl attitude. This lifestyle is not accepted in the middle east so where many other places have Barbie, Bratz and other toys like that, the middle eastern people relate to and enjoy Fulla. This is a doll with good values in the eyes of Arab and Muslim parents and it will most likely be around as long if not longer than Barbie.

Here is a Fulla commercial. It seems a little different than most Barbie commercials but I'll let you be the judge.



Works Cited:
MacKinnon, Mark. "Barbie Meets Her Muslim Match." The Globe and Mail 27 Oct. 2005.