Popular culture items ranging from toys to movies are re-imagined for Muslim audiences such as these examples found recently in Syria.
Fulla is the Arab “Barbie,” a dark-haired, dark eyed doll, found in a myriad of products ranging from coloring books to backpacks to scooters to shampoo. Fulla created a stir several years ago when Western media started writing about her appearance as an indigenous counter to the much more costly and often revealingly dressed Western doll. (NYT: “Barbie gets a prayer mat.”)
While the packaging for this swimming pool added modest dress to the mother figure, this Jim Carrey "Yes Man" movie poster on display outside a movie house in Aleppo represents a contrary trend: Air-brushing in more risqué images than the original as a bait to draw in male audiences.
In another cultural adaptation, Master Cola, a Syrian-produced soft drink, offers a Coke-like beverage produced in Damascus since 1969, according to its website.
Resisting cultural imperialism, or carving out a market? Culture critics at the feminist Muslimah Media Watch website suggest Fulla is just a way to “sell Islam,” and if the new volume by Vali Nasr is any indication, they may be right: “Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What it Will Mean for Our World.”
