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Black Girl With Long Hair
Hijarbie is the brainchild of 24-year-old Nigerian medical scientist Haneefah Adam who wanted to see herself reflected in the popular dolls. Adam was inspired after perusing Barbie’s official style account on Instagram.
She spoke to Mic.com about it;
“It got me thinking about how I’d actually like to see a doll dressed up like I would have — covered up… 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.”
The dolls are absolutely adorable, but many have pointed out that there are no black or brown ones featured. Adam says it’s an issue of availability.
“The simple truth is, I couldn’t find the Different types in Nigeria (no Amazon or eBay or anything, Lol), I’d have loved to dress up a black doll myself too. I’ve ordered for some internationally and they’ll soon be here. I basically started with what I had.”
So how does Adam come up with Hijarbie’s looks?
“Adam, who is also launching a modest lifestyle brand called Hanie, makes all the dresses and hijabs herself. Lately, she’s been designing and sewing looks based off popular Muslim fashion bloggers, like Habiba Da Silva and Leena Asad.”
This is beyond cute! Go to Hijarbie’s Instagram account to see more.
Ladies, what are your thoughts?
13 Responses
It’s a GREAT idea! Keep at it!! 🙂
She’s black but she’s posting only white doll pictures all over her instagram I don’t see the point.. I’m black btw… expect brainswashing children earlier just my opinion. Children are not old enought to choose if they want to wear scarf or not.
she said where she is there are not any black or brown ones available, she doesn’t have the mold, obviously she doesn’t care about the color rather than she does about the fashion.
did you read the article? She couldn’t source other skin tones… but has ordered them.
I appreciate that she’s designing clothes from real-life inspirations, but the actual concept of hijab Barbie has been around for quite a while, at least 8 years because that was when I started working with hijab-wearing students and I remember this (“hijabing” Barbie) being a big deal. Also, didn’t I see just last year that there was a very popular brand of black Barbie selling in Nigeria?
Naiibilabee on Instagram is another great follow for modest clothing.
Wait a minute…how does one, in response to a Black woman not seeing images of Barbie like herself, get to point of then creating a wrapped, white Barbie?? And again, what does this have to do with BGLH??
she didnt actually manufacture the dolls..hence the skin color. duh..all she could do was manipulate the clothing.
Um…she could also do that with black dolls.
If you read the article you would have read: “The simple truth is, I couldn’t find the Different types in Nigeria (no
Amazon or eBay or anything, Lol), I’d have loved to dress up a black
doll myself too. I’ve ordered for some internationally and they’ll soon
be here. I basically started with what I had.”
I completely agree with your comment. BGLH? This is not even remotely relevant to this site!
Black girl? No, I see a black woman that puts her religion first: all her dolls are white and covered.
Long hair? No, in fact I don’ t even see a strand of hair. Oh the irony for a site which the majority of articles are about showing your (afro) hair!
And don’ t even get me started on women empowerment. This doll is just early brainwashing for little girls who will grow up in a patriarch society. Is this woman even aware that thousands of women are risking/ loosing their life for being able to walk freely in the street without having to cover her head? Does she know that in Syria some women get lynched if only just a bit of hair shows, sometimes by women!?
BGLH, how can you celebrate this nonsense?
You cannot invalidate the whole body of Islam due to a few extreme cases. If that were logical, Christianity would be up for grabs too.
Christianity is up for grabs. In South America the church prevented a 10 year old from having an abortion after she was raped by her step father. She was forced to give birth to her rapists baby AND have a c section (or die in birth) thanks to Christianity. Most religions we know of are fundamentally anti-woman and patriachal and misogynistic.