All summer long Cindy Sheehan sat outside the ranch in Crawford. She had one question for the President: what was the noble cause that her son had died for? Well, Cindy, we think we have your answer!

As an estimated 100,000 people gather in Washington today for one of the largest anti-war rallies since the bad old Ho Chi Minh days, it becomes more and more obvious that we have made the world safer for full-blown Islamic theocracies. Capitalism Americana meets the Sharia in the starry-eyed little charmer, above, an Islamically correct Barbie-lookalike (that Mattel Barbie, much to its grief, has nothing to do with) is causing a sensation in the Axis of Evil — Little Girl branch.

From the New York Times:

Fulla’s creator, NewBoy Design Studio, based in Syria, introduced her in November 2003, and she has quickly become a best seller all over the region. It is nearly impossible to walk into a corner shop in Syria or Egypt or Jordan or Qatar without encountering Fulla breakfast cereal or Fulla chewing gum or not to see little girls pedaling down the street on their Fulla bicycles, all in trademark “Fulla pink”…

Meet Fulla, devout Muslim, obedient daughter and righteous Islamic role model. Fulla steps out of her box in a long black abaya and headscarf. But she also has a spring wardrobe (sold separately, of course) of shoulder-to-toe belted coats. Though Fulla is usually displayed in her “modest outdoors fashion,” she is all girly girl underneath the Old Testament garb, sporting pink everything, lacy underwear and the sort of leggy curvaceousness that our own Malibu Barbie works so hard at acquiring as a doctor, teacher and figure skater.

In a region where we once turned a blind eye to dictators and monsters, Baywatch Barbie was the doll of choice. But now the Bushian winds of democracy are blowing, blowing, blowing. They have blown so righteously across the Levant that they have blown the American Barbie — obviously in her job as Ambassador — right off the shelves, replacing her with a theocratic babe who comes complete with her own prayer rug — in pink felt, what else?

The New York Times explains:

Ms. Sayeedi, the toy store clerk, said she felt sorry for parents.

“If you’ve got a TV in the house, it’s Fulla all the time,” she said. “The parents complain about the expense [the Fulla doll sells for about $16, in a country where average per capita income hovers around $100 per month]. But Fulla gives girls a more Islamic character to emulate, and parents want that.”

Not everyone sees Fulla as such a positive influence. Maan Abdul Salam, a Syrian women’s rights advocate, said Fulla was emblematic of a trend toward Islamic conservatism sweeping the Middle East. Though statistics are hard to come by, he said, the percentage of young Arab women who wear the hijab [headscarf] is far higher now than it was a decade ago, and though many girls are wearing it by choice, others are being pressured to do so.

“If this doll had come out 10 years ago, I don’t think it would have been very popular,” he said. “Fulla is part of this great cultural shift.”

“Syria used to be a very secular country,” he added, “but when people don’t have anything to believe in anymore, they turn toward religion.”

Fatima Ghayeh, who at 15 is a few years past playing with dolls herself, said she felt “sad that no one plays with Barbie anymore.” But, pressed for further explanation, Ms. Ghayeh, dressed in a white hijab and ankle-length khaki coat, appeared to change her mind.

“My friends and I loved Barbie more than anything,” she said. “But maybe it’s good that girls have Fulla now. If the girls put scarves on their dolls when they’re young, it might make it easier when their time comes . Sometimes it is difficult for girls to put on the hijab. They feel it is the end of childhood.” “Fulla shows girls that the hijab is a normal part of a woman’s life,” Ms. Ghayeh continued. She gestured behind her, at a pair of excited little girls examining a rack of Fulla-branded Frisbees and pool toys. “Now the girls only want Fulla.”

Girls just wanna have God, okay! And so there’s your noble cause, Cindy:

Theocracies abroad! Theocracies at home!