New initiative creates tiny hijabs for dolls in a bid to help make playtime more inclusive

When Gisele Fetterman noticed her five-year-old daughter didn’t have any dolls that represented many of her Muslim friends, she decided to do something about it.

So the mum from Pittsburgh in the US decided to launch Hello Hijab, an initiative that creates tiny hijabs for children to put on their dolls.

Gisele had her lightbulb moment for the Barbie-sized hijabs shortly after her daughter started wearing glasses and wanted to get matching spectacles for some of her dolls.

“I saw how important it was for her to be represented with her dolls,” she told Heat Street. “So I thought, who’s not represented? Who’s missing?”

Though she’s not a Muslim herself, Gisele realised that her daughter’s diverse range of dolls didn’t include any who wore headscarves or hijabs.

And after consulting with Muslim friends and arranging meetings with the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh Hello Hijab was born.

The teeny handmade headscarves will be available to buy in the US for $6 (around £5) from April 1 and it is the first project from For Good, a non-profit organisation which aims to help companies and individuals to do good in their local community.

All the doll hijabs come with a card written for children, explaining what a hijab is and why it’s important and it is hoped the introduction of the dolls accessories will help create a culture of understanding.

“During these tense and very charged times, this concept might sound naive — and maybe it is,” Gisele and her co-creator Kristen Michaels wrote on the nonprofit’s site. “But we believe that there has never been a better time to reach out and do something positive for someone else.”

The initiative hopes that by making playtime more inclusive, and getting children used to seeing headscarves as part of every day life, it might help create a culture of understanding that will ultimately tackle stigma.

“I hope that we’re raising a kinder generation,” Gisele explained to Heat Street. “And if our children are playing with dolls that look like all kinds of people, when they grow up and meet these people, I hope they’re going to be a lot kinder than generations before them.”

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