Monday, January 16, 2012

Things are so tense in Iran you better not buy a Barbie Doll!

The Barbie doll section is pictured at Contesso JoueClub toy shop in Nice, southeastern France, December 2, 2011.     REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

           Good day Humboldt County!

With increasing pressure coming from the U.S. and U.N. to abandon Iran’s suspected nuke aspirations, the common person in Iran is affected by the imposed sanctions.

When the government tells them what toys they can and can’t buy, some people resist. The Israel-US war drill was postponed over Iran tensions according to U.S. government sources. Iran is also waging a culture war that is ramping up everyday.

                                  Iran cracks down on moral peril of Barbie peddlers

Iran's morality police are cracking down on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values, shopkeepers said on Monday. As the West imposes the toughest ever sanctions on Iran and tensions rise over its nuclear program, inside the country the Barbie ban is part of what the government calls a "soft war" against decadent cultural influences.

"About three weeks ago they (the morality police) came to our shop, asking us to remove all the Barbies," said a shopkeeper in a toy shop in northern Tehran. Iran's religious rulers first declared Barbie, made by U.S. company Mattel Inc, un-Islamic in 1996, citing its "destructive cultural and social consequences." Despite the ban, the doll has until recently been openly on sale in Tehran shops. The new order, issued around three weeks ago, forced shopkeepers to hide the leggy, busty blonde behind other toys as a way of meeting popular demand for the dolls while avoiding being closed down by the police.

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