Iran clamps down on a pink, plastic subversive

She is made of plastic, looks pretty in pink and stands just 10 inches tall. However, for Iran’s hardline rulers Barbie is a dangerous weapon launched by the “decadent” West to corrupt Iranian girls.

Iran’s morality police in recent days has closed down dozens of toy shops for selling the doll that is as popular in Tehran as she is in Wigan or Washington.

Like Iran’s political dissidents, Barbies have been seized in a sweeping crackdown and doomed to an uncertain fate.

In a society where women must wear headscarves in public, the busty American doll was an affront to hardliners.

She was deemed to be encouraging girls to grow up too quickly and setting a bad example by flashing too much flesh, wearing make-up and, as a material girl, promoting consumerism.

The heavy-handed measures follow unsuccessful attempts by the authorities in recent years to dethrone Barbie with their own dolls.

In 2002, Iran’s Institute for the Development of Children and Young Adults unveiled Sara, a modestly-dressed, brown-eyed brunette who was meant to leave her American counterpart gathering dust on toyshop shelves.

As a pre-pubescent and chubby-cheeked eight-year-old, Sara was designed to look as different as possible to busty Barbie.

At the time, one Iranian toy-seller claimed that “every Barbie doll is more harmful than an American missile”.

However, Sara bombed while Barbie remained a best-seller. “Sara was ugly and fat,” one Iranian mother complained yesterday.

In another swipe at the West, Iranians will soon be able to buy toy versions of the US spy drone that it captured last month.

Models of the bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, which was downed near the Afghan border, will be mass produced in a variety of colours.