Two lovely ladies with their prayer rugs.
We live in a suburb of Denver named Aurora, Colorado.
It took me a while to fall in love with Aurora. I wanted to be a Downtown Girl. I bought a house downtown and that’s where I met my husband. But he’d been living downtown his entire life and wanted to be a Suburban Boy.
If you can find the right suburb, it might actually be more ethnically diverse than a city neighborhood. These days city neighborhoods tend to be either entirely gentrified upper-middle class white or entirely (targeted for regentrification) working and poverty-class black and Mexican.
Aurora is more diverse both ethnically and socio-economically than almost any Denver neighborhood. I think it must be the most diverse city in Colorado.
Aurora has a lot of hijab wearing ladies.
We see women in full Abayas or even Chadors from time to time. But we see mostly Hijabs with Westernized clothing-though very modest Westernized clothing. Actually, mostly Al-Amira – since those are pretty trendy right now. Of course, the Al-Amira and Shayla are more styles of Hijab than actual differences in coverage area. The Al-Amira is what I would wear if I was Muslim. It’s just a stretchy piece worn under the more scarf-like piece.
My Morrocan neighbors tell me the Al-Amira just means “like a Princess’. This stretchy jersey-like headpiece makes it easier to put on and keep in place and is more comfortable to many. 
We had already purchased a full long black Abaya plus black Hijab for dolls. We posted earlier about Our Fulla in her traditional, head-to-toe-but-face-fully-visible Abaya and Hijab.
After I posted about Our Fulla, I had a message from the woman who owns MuslimToysAndDolls.com. I checked out her site and liked what I saw. They had clothing much more like what we see day-to-day around our beloved Aurora.
NOTE: Click on the site’s menu item “Dolls and Accessories” then click on “Islamic Doll Clothes” or just click HERE.
I spent about $30 on the site. I got two modern outfits and two prayer rugs. The site owner called me to check on something and she called me, “Sister Kristl” a few times and it made me feel all warm inside. I don’t know why. I’m a pretty odd person when it come to stuff like that.
The order arrived today and I couldn’t wait to dress up a couple of dolls I’d set aside to become Muslim sisters.
I chose not to buy Fulla or Arrosa dolls (just their clothes) because, unfortunately those dolls tend to be light-skinned, and somewhat light-haired. They often even have light eyes. Not my cup of tea. I wanted light brown skin, black hair and brown or Ebony eyes.
My girls are Thrift Store rescues. Both are rebodied on light-skinned Liv Alexis dolls (For light vs Dark Alexis explanations, see this post).
Disney's Esmerelda. Why would a gypsy woman have blue eyes in the first place? Ugh. And her hair is too long for my liking.
Both heads are Disney. One is a very early version of Pocohontas. The other is an Esmerelda. Later versions of Pocohontas have her eyes much more Native-Americanized. In other words, not with tons of eyeliner as this doll clearly had. She’s a beautiful doll, but I find she works better as a Persian or Arab ethnicity doll.
My Esmerelda had blue eyes so I colored in the Irises with black Sharpie.
Shorter hair, Ebony Eyes. Much better.
REMEMBER: Only use Sharpies over face paint, never on raw facial plastic – as it can bleed and migrate.
Two beautiful, modern, Muslim Women for Leah's barbieland.
I am loving the outcome. I also think the outfits could work well for barbies you want to have playing older characters – mothers and such. IOW, just leave off the headscarf and the outfits are just good, wholesome outfits. Nothing like the trampy stuff we are offered in stores for BBBBarbies.
As for modern women rocking Hijabs just like my two plastic gals, a fun site to check out is called Hijabs High. It seems to be a little dormant, but even looking at older entries is fun. These human Hijabistas (that’s what the site calls them) have got it going on for sure.
A picture from the blog Hijabs High
