The hijab-wearing Barbie who’s become an Instagram star

The hijab-wearing Barbie who's become an Instagram star

NIGERIA – Barbie has had another makeover. This time as a hijab-wearing Muslim. It was only last month that Mattel gave Barbie a dramatic transformation with a variety of skin tones and different body types, including adding curves to her impossibly slender frame. Now the  Nigerian medical scientist Haneefa Adam has taken Instagram by storm since she began posting images of a hijab-wearing Barbie doll a few weeks ago.

Adam says she was inspired to create the Hijarbie account after coming across the Barbie Style Instagram page. She told CNN: “I thought I had not seen Barbie dressed in a hijab before so I decided to open an Instagram account and dressed Barbie up in the clothes that I made. I thought it was really important for a doll to be dressed like how I would be.” The 24-year-old, who recently completed a Masters in Pharmacology in the UK, describes Hijarbie as a “modest doll” — one that offers Muslim girls a relatable role model.(CNN)…[+]