Shohreh Jandaghian interviews Syrian filmmaker Diana El-Jeiroudi about her documentary, “Dolls,” which parallels the Fulla doll—a veiled, Middle Eastern Barbie—with “Manal,” a young mother in traditional Syrian society. El-Jeiroudi says:
I came across the massive advertising and marketing of the doll “Fulla” which to me was just another framing to the female identity but was so much social but also a commercial-religious one. And it comes within a growing trend in Syria—and also the region—to go back to the cover but this time with a growing Islamic ideological approach as opposed to the original genuine traditions that evolve from inside the society. So together with a growing population rates, poverty, political and social pressures and the West focus against Islam, Fulla came as a commercial reflection on all of this for families. So I was immediately urged to observe and criticize, at least one feels participating in preventing a regional identity crisis.
Read the full interview here.