Just when you think you’ve heard everything, here comes “Hijarbie,” a Shariah-compliant Barbie doll entering the market.
The doll, designed by 24-year-old Nigerian Haneefah Adam, is all about having a doll that represents her own cultural and religious background.
Adam, an Instagram fashionista, said her doll — while not Mattel-compliant — is proving to be a success, at least among Muslim girls.
Adam told Style Mic she got the idea for her doll a few months ago.
“It got me thinking about how I’d actually like to see a doll dressed up like I would have — covered up,” she said. “I was mulling about the idea for about three months while I was still studying for my master’s degree in the U.K. When I got back to Nigeria, I went to the mall, purchased a doll, dressed it up, documented it and here we are.”
Adam makes all the dresses and hijabs for the dolls herself. She said her intent was to show girls that wearing a hijab makes them no less beautiful than the traditional western Barbie everyone is accustomed to seeing.
“I want them to be inspired — this is about having an alternative and creating an awareness of having toys that adopt your religion and culture and in your own likeness, which at the end of the day, leads to an improvement in self-esteem,” Adam said.
Adam said she couldn’t find a dark-skinned Barbie doll in Nigeria to clothe when critics asked her about the seemingly contradictory white barbie dressed in a hajib.
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