Fulla loses her religion.

So, I am not going to lie. We did part of Christmas a little early. In the car on the way home from Toys R Us, early. Mariam has been talking a lot about dolls lately, so I thought I would gift her one that was a little more grown up than the babies she already has. I have been curious about these "Fulla" dolls since I got here. It is basically a Muslim Barbie, complete with headscarf and abaya.

We were at the store and Fulla was a little cheeper than Barbie and had dark hair, two things that really appeal, not to mention how novel the idea was to me. I picked out a basic model from the "Fruity Abaya" line. Lemon-Mint Fulla came all wrapped up in her black outdoor clothes. On the back of the box you could see the outfit she had on underneath, double the wardrobe!

I took the box out in the car to look at it on the way home. Of corse Mariam saw it right away from her newly forward facing car seat, "DOLL! DOLL! DOLL!" I tried to put Lemon-Mint back in the bag and tears and shouting erupted. We had a slow and stressful drive (as always here) ahead of us, so I gave in and took Fulla out of the box. I probably wanted to see her more than Mare did anyway. I handed the doll to Mariam I could hear velcro being ripped and then a frustrated, "OUT"! Lemon-Mint was given back to the front seat to have her Abaya removed. It came off relatively easy, but her headscarf seemed to be securely attached. On the back of the box Fulla had flowing hair and no scarf on with her casual shirt and stretch pants. I thought the headscarf would have an easy off, but like lots of kids toys, the box was a little deceptive. I made some joke to Michael about Fulla having to be inside with the door shut before the headscarf could come off, also he probably shouldn't see her sans abaya since she isn't related to him.

We got home and I did a full inspection of Lemon-Mint with Mariam watching intently over my shoulder. We took off all her clothes. Fulla has incredibly skinny arms and much smaller boobs than Barbie does. She also has built in underwear that goes down to her knees and a square neck undershirt that most women in America would wear as just a shirt. Her fashionable little headscarf was not coming off. I told Michael to get me the scissors. I could see it was attached by little black plastic loops implanted into her head. It was hard to tell if it was supposed to stay that way or if it was like the other 1,000 pieces of plastic and wire bands that I had to take off to get Fulla out of the box. I decided along with Mariam, "OFF". Oops, I totally killed Lemon-Mint's modesty, and she was a Christmas gift, what am I doing to this young skinny Muslim doll! It was not meant to come off. Her hair was just sort of long black and hacked, not at all like the styled photo, I guess you have to do that yourself.

Mariam loves it by the way, she has taken off the clothes about 90 times already.

I did some more finding out Fulla. I checked out her website to find gems like this:

Under the "Learning" link there is a section titled "Dressing Modest". There you can find recipes for a fairer face and one to take care of your rough and ugly feet, articles about what fabric patterns to choose to flatter your figure, what your wardrobe style says about your personality type and one called "Food Makes You Prettier, But?" It is like an issue of Cosmo aimed at six year olds, nothing about dressing modestly.

My favorite is the "Inspiring Words" section. It just says, "Better be a cub in the family of lions than be a king of the Ostriches." Really? Fulla is hating on Ostriches now?

I am sure there are stranger things written in the "Whispers" section. Thats where they give some girl advice. I am really too tired to read all that right now though, and kinda weirded out.

Merry early Christmas.