Two weeks ago, Iranian Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi just said no to the destructive cultural and social consequences of Western toys. He's sick and tired of Iranian markets being inundated with the Barbies, Batmen, Spidermen and Harry Potters arriving on his shores through "unofficial" sources.

Smugglers and toyshop owners, you see, have discovered that Iranian parents, thanks to increased oil revenues, will pay top dollar to make their offspring's dreams come true. Iran, reports Reuters, is the world's third biggest importer of toys.

In 2002, after a Komiteh (public morals police) campaign — that heaved purveyors of black-market Barbies in the clink — fizzled, Dara and Sara were introduced. However, the modestly attired twins, who come with a backstory designed to promote Islamic values, don't seem to be stemming the Malibu Barbie tide.

Don't you think Najafabadi should lighten up? Barbie is only a doll, for heaven's sake. What's the big deal?

All manner of popular culture observers have weighed in on the pint-sized phenomenon. Feminist thinkers from Betty Friedan to Naomi Wolf see the 11.5-inch fashion plate as symbolic of our obsession with idealized female bodies. M.G. Lord ("Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of Real Doll") writes about Cindy Jackson, a woman who underwent nine cosmetic surgeries in order to resemble the fantastic plastic icon — exactly.

On the occasion of Barbie's 35th birthday, Anna Quindlen harangued: "Long before (supermodel) Kate (Moss) and Ultra Slimfast came along, hanging over the lives of every little girl born in the second half of the twentieth century was the impossibly curvy shadow (40-18-32 in life-size terms) of Barbie. That preposterous physique, we learned as kids, is what a woman looks like with her clothes off."

But proponents retort that Barbie, who is gainfully employed in a profession (Astronaut Barbie in 1965, Doctor Barbie in 1988 and Nascar Barbie in 1998) and enjoys oodles of friends, is one terrific role model. Not only is she not dependent on Ken for her identity but she also views the world as one of limitless choices. Isn't that a great lesson, they ask, to offer any little girl?

What kind of role model, opponents hedge, is an anorexic (estimated 35 pounds underweight) Barbie?

Ask yourself — is merely putting a wasp-waisted fashion model mannequin through countless wardrobe changes really going to cause young girls to starve themselves in order to sculpt their bodies into hers?

Still, as any parent who has invested thousands of dollars in Barbie dolls, clothes, accessories, pets, residences, vehicles, books and video games can attest, Barbie seems to teach glitzy gimme-ism for now and conspicuous consumerism for the future. Whether or not studies bear this out, here's some food for thought: While most parents draw the line at outfitting their little darlings in Versace or Mackie, Barbies are an entirely different story.

So how many Barbies are we actually talking about? According to Smithsonian Magazine, if you queued up all the dolls sold during Barbie's first three decades, you could circumnavigate the globe a whopping four times. Not one, but three Barbies are purchased somewhere on the planet every single second, and the average American 3- to 10-year-old female owns ten dolls.

Barbie's ubiquity wasn't always the case. When she first appeared sporting a zebra-striped swimsuit March 9, 1959, Mattel couldn't give the dolls away. It seems America, which defined dollies as cherry-cheeked infants, wasn't quite ready for playthings with perky protrusions.

Yet, creator Ruth Handler, who believes a full-figured figure is essential to self-esteem, dug in her arched heels. According to her autobiography, Handler, who went on to develop a natural-feeling breast prosthesis (Nearly Me), did so in order to "return that same self-esteem to women who (through cancer) have lost theirs."

Barbie's initial popularity is credited to a jingle-laden ad that aired during must-see Mickey Mouse Club shows. Her longevity, nearly 50 years and counting, is due, according to author Kristin Noelle Weissmann ("Barbie: the Icon, the Image, the Ideal") to Mattel making "sure that she can consistently adapt to the culture, and to her target audience" — even if that audience lives in Iran.

The problem with Najafabadi's "lock-out-the-devil" viewpoint is that it gives a great deal of credit and/or control to the Great Satan. Abrar Awan, who sees real life as much more complicated than any black-and-white interpretation of Islamic theology, is sick and tired of "America or the West always behind every fault, every problem," as he told The New York Times. "Now, in my practical life, I know the faults are within us."

Nancy Reagan was right — with respect to dolls as well as drugs. When it comes to Barbie, parents — in Iran or America — should just say no.

— Beverly Kelley, Ph.D., who writes every other Monday for The Star, is an author ("Reelpolitik" and "Reelpolitik II") and professor in the Communication Department at California Lutheran University. Visit http://beverlykelley.typepad.com/my_weblog/. Her e-mail address is Kelley@clunet.edu.