Ball- jointed Dolls in Arabic Countries

Hyschara, thank you so much for your post! This is precisely what this thread needed--a view from the inside, as it were.

 

I live in Indonesia. There are many doll owners here, both moslems and non-moslems (Protestants, Catholics, Buddhist, Hindu... you name it). We don't have such difficulties as Hyschara said, tho. Maybe because Malaysia is using Islam as a base (to create rules), while Indonesia is not. We have so many religions here that the Government only applies Islam rules to Moslems, and others to his/her own religions and rules. We have ways to implement that, one of them is having different laws applied to different religions. We can go out wearing shorts, wear bikini on the beach... see Bali for example. XD That island is one free country within our country. And not the only one. ^^ But if you're a Moslem here and you're nude on the beach, then the Moslem party will come to you with the laws, because you are listed as Moslems and must obey their rules. Same thing as the Protestants or Buddhists here, each religion has its own government party with rules and laws to abide.

But I agree that nudity (while the dolls are being shipped) is never a problem. >.> My post office staff know they are DOLLS. They're not humans. Of course there are problems (and prohibitions) of sex toys imports (you will go to jail for that), but these are not sex toys. =_= They're dolls, just like Barbie and Ken, only bigger. People in here are mesmerised by our dolls, adore them even. They never say anything like : "you can't have something like that in the house!" because it's someone else's privacy, it's none of their business. >.> We have Japanese figurines sold here as well... those with very detailed bodies and skimpy clothings. It has never become a problem. =_= As long as they are DOLLS and not used as sex toys.

 

Emby Quinn - hahaha you're welcome xD Sorry that I still cannot answer in terms of the Middle Eastern countries though!

Thankfully no one (e.g. relatives, etc) has come up to me to say 'you can't have something like that in the house!' xD
Most of them just nod though some would 'chide', "You're already grown up, you shouldn't play with dolls."

My mom does try to explain to them that I learn how to sew clothes for them and etc as a hobby, so I guess that helps them tolerate it too xD;

 

Only grown ups play with BJDs. They're not your average children toys. >.> They're expensive items. Should be kept away from children at all cost! ^^

 

fransyung - There's a whole other debate topic discussing that, actually xD See : "Too young for the hobby?"

Granted in our countries these things end up being waaay too pricey to even remotely be child's toy. Though honestly, I keep their prices to myself (as they are another potential source of outbirk).

 

Could say the same for us English speakers! I've never dared buying straight from a company website. Grouping everyone in every Arabic country (and Iran, which incidentally isn't Arabic) together is like grouping everyone across the US or across Europe together. These countries have people with different levels of education, income, hobbies, musical tastes etc just like anywhere else. And many of them can speak at least some english, and certainly know how to use the internet.

As with most things in life, "male-ness" or female-ness" is part of a very broad spectrum. Some men and women are different, some women are very masculine, some men can be feminine. So saying all men and women are fundamentally different is oversimplifying things. The world is wonderfully complex and diverse!

 

Am being dumb and cant figure out how to delete my double post, sorry!

 

Hello people, I am Muslim but live in Australia. I own a doll and a half (waiting for a body!).
I'm not sure if this is a little offtopic, but my family is not so happy about my dolls, mainly because of them looking like "sculptures" and we're not supposed to own things that look realistic.
I wouldn't be surprised that there aren't many sales in predominantly Muslim countries, but I also feel that some countries are exposed to things much later than others, like clothing styles and such. I might be wrong though!
I hope you people get what I mean :P

And for the record I think it would be pretty hard to find a company to buy from unless you knew English. Language barrier...

 

I totally understood...thanks for sharing your experience. I too was wondering about the dolls looking too much like scuptures if that would be considered haram or not.

And yeah things like styles, movies, music...arrive in different countries at different times so I get what you mean by that too.

 

Hi there~ I'm a Muslim and I live in Middle East and I own till this moment 14 dolls
and I'm waiting for 4 dolls. I had known about this hobby for 7 years

PS. I know there more middle eastren here in DOA

 

How do you save up? I know in some countries it can be hard for women to get jobs...which is another topic which also relates to dolls (I read your intro and know you're female)

 

I have job in medical field and I live with my family and that's save a lot of money so most of my salary goes to my hobby

 

I think one problem is that Islam is still very mysterious to the rest of the world and there are so many misconceptions about it out there. Since my daughter is now married to a Muslim man and is converting, I would like to take a class in it myself to understand it better. He is from India, so just pointing out that Islam is not just in Arabic countries. When his mother was here she thought my dolls were beautiful. Also would like to point out that there are likely fundamentalist Christian sects who would think these dolls are sinful or Satanic (especially some of the goth ones).

 

Oh certainly...like I said before many people in my sect think that my dolls are sinful not just because of their expense and the "materialism" but also their degree of anatomical correctness.

Shoujo: Cool!

 

@dante12: I'd really like to know about you and I'll try to bring some Arabian ppl that I know here in this thread

I'd really really want to explain what you need to know but I think it's OT and I don't want this thread to be closed after I found
it so if there any thread about this topic we can talk about it their or you can PM

Thank you^^

 

i really got confused reading all the entries, anyway..
hi i am a Muslim, i am from KSA right now i only have 4 dolls and i can put it as simple as this:
we face the same problems that not all but a majority of you would face when obtaining BJDs

 

My brother-in-law is both arabic and muslim. I dont think that we should assume that all arabic people are muslim. He is from Jordan and it is quite normal there- big cities, Mcdonalds, ect. I believe that the question will result in many answers depending on each individual country and better yet, the rural and urban areas in the middle east differ extremely from each other. so I would imagine it would be very area specific though I understand your curiosity.

 

no its ok I just came back from outside and saw the thread so I didnt have the energy to read anything (thats explain my lazy post)
I am really happy to find more arabian ppl here and happy to know about you