Pittsburgh effort creates hijabs for dolls
PITTSBURGH — Gisele Fetterman, who started the Braddock Free Store and cofounded the excess food collection service 412 Food Rescue, goes to great lengths to instill values of egalitarianism in her three young children.
Back in 2013, before statelevel bans against same-sex marriage were overturned, her husband, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, performed the first gay marriage in Allegheny County in their home, although the union would not be legally recognized. Gisele Fetterman — originally from Rio de Janeiro — told her oldest child, Karl, now 8, that the ceremony would be between two men. He simply responded, “So what?”
Now, amid fallout from the Trump administration’s revised travel ban, daughter Grace, 5, doesn’t understand why none of her dolls resemble her friend Salma’s mother, Safaa Bokhari, a 30-yearold Muslim from Saudi Arabia who wears a hijab, or a traditional head covering. She lives in Oakland.
“I love that Grace doesn’t understand why someone would have an issue (with veiled dolls),” Gisele Fetterman said.
But while Gisele Fetterman easily found doll-sized glasses for Grace’s Barbies on Amazon after her daughter got her first pair, she could not find a hijab. It was difficult for her to explain to her young daughter why a portion of the population was not represented in her doll collection, which includes an AfricanAmerican doll and a doll in a wheelchair. As of 2015, Pew Research Center estimated that 3.3 million Muslims live in the United States.
Out of this frustration, Gisele Fetterman enlisted help from Cindy McCune, a stay-at-home mother of two and artist based in Rankin. McCune, who operates Etsy shop TheBigOh, fashioned Grace’s first Barbie hijab among about 100 others she has made.
Gisele Fetterman’s idea has since grown into Hello Hijab, a locally based initiative that will sell doll-sized hijabs for $6 each. The hijabs will be available online at her site, ForGoodPgh.com beginning April 1.
The small squares of fabric are each handmade in varying colors and patterns, mirroring the real-life headscarves that typically measure 36 inches on each side. Gisele Fetterman said Muslim seamstresses will create the next round of mini hijabs at what she called a living wage of $15 per hour.
“If children grow up playing with the dolls and understanding that we’re all different but similar, too, they will be much more accepting adults,” Gisele Fetterman said. For her, Hello Hijab is securely grounded in education.
Each scarf will be packaged with a tag, featuring the Hello Hijab logo and a few lines of text describing the nature of the hijab and why they’re important. The message will be written with positivity and inclusivity in mind, Gisele Fetterman said.
The number of scarves produced depends on demand, Gisele Fetterman said, but she has already gauged interested from customers in other states, such as New York and New Jersey.
Last year, Nigerian medical scientist Haneefah Adam, then 24, created the wildly popular Hijarbie Instagram account, which now has amassed 781,000 followers, worldwide. Previously, she had not seen dolls in the head garb, she told CNN, so she was inspired to create role models who dressed modestly.
On the site, Adam posted photos of Barbie dolls clad in mini hijabs she had made herself. Some of the posts feature side-by-side comparisons of the dolls with reallife style influences.
Mattel, the manufacturer of Barbie, did not respond to telephone or email requests earlier this week for comment on past or future plans to create Muslim dolls or accessories.
Gisele Fetterman said that any small difference the Hello Hijab makes is worthwhile.
“If every playroom has at least one doll with a hijab and that affects five more children who affect 10 more, then I think our work will be considered a success,” she said.
After paying seamstresses, Gisele Fetterman said 100 percent of Hello Hijab’s proceeds will benefit the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, the ACLU, Community Blueprint and the refugee relief department of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
“I joke, but it’s true — if my kids saw a person walking down the street with purple skin and three eyes, to them it would be just like another person walking down the street,” Gisele Fetterman said. “I think this will be a much kinder generation.”
Traditional Catholic Mass holds more value
Editor: At the Traditional Latin Tridentine Mass, the altar boy was at the Priest’s side as he gave Communion to those kneeling at the altar rail. The altar boy held a Communion paten below the chin of Communicants to prevent any “Consecrated” Host.
The paten is no longer deemed necessary in today’s modern Catholic Church as Pope Paul VI Invited “6” Protestant advisors to arrange a “new” mass. Following the Protestant rebellion, Communicants now stand to receive Communion.
Pharisaical has been confused with anything traditional. Perhaps just the reverse is taking place. Liberalism best represents Pharisees, because it follows man’s ways — what “feels” or “seems” right. As with altar girls, the modern church follows present-day culture.
There was fruit in using the paten. I never heard of a “Consecrated” Host (Body and Blood of Christ) being found in the pews — or sold on the Internet — or mishandled when dropped. A simple instrument like the paten demonstrated outwardly the inner Faith of 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 and John 6:55-56. Catholics knelt to receive Communion as a family.
Most are blind — don’t even realize (Luke 6:39) that we are living in the greatest heresy: modern ecumenism (man’s ways). This heresy is very capable of delivering many sheep of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church into the wolves of the counterfeit, one-world, unholy, blind modern New World Order slavery (false unity outside the Eucharist).
Because of this vacuous teaching, a young lady relinquished her True Catholic Faith for royalty. England’s requirement reminds me of Matthew 16:26 — “For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his own soul?”
After her husband’s infidelity, Maria Shriver asked for advice. Maria, seek out the Traditional Catholic Faith of your grandmother Rose Kennedy, the one shining light in the whole Kennedy family. Proclaim the Traditional Latin Tridentine Mass, which alone has the proper focus of worship towards the Crucifix, Tabernacle; Altar (the Sacrifice). Solution for both families and faith. Death Tax that President Obama sneaked into one of his plans. Christian businesses should not be destroyed for refusing to cater same-sex celebrations that are biblically forbidden. We should not be paying taxes to the United Nations, nor have our privacy violated in public restrooms by persons who are not satisfied with the gender they’re created with. And if you have school-age children know that parents and local teachers are better at choosing curriculum than Washington's common core. And, it’s time for Congress to stop using seniors’ Social Security money for their projects.
God sovereign in his grace
Editor: God’s glorious sovereignty, Thine, O LORD is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.
The sovereignty of God is an expression that once was generally understood. It was a phrase commonly used in religious literature.
It was a theme frequently expounded in the pulpit. It was a truth that brought comfort to many hearts and gave stability to Christian character. But, today, to make mention of God’s sovereignty is, in many quarters, to speak in an unknown tongue.
Were it to be announced from the average pulpit that the subject of the discourse would be the sovereignty of God, it would sound very much as though we had borrowed a phrase from one of the dead languages. That the doctrine which is the key to the interpreter of providence, the warp and woof of scripture, and the foundation of Christian teleology, should be so sadly neglected and so little understood.
The sovereignty of God, what do I mean by this expression? I mean the supremacy of God, the king ship of God, the godhood of God.
To say that God is sovereign is to declare that he is the most high, doing “according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what doest thou?”
To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the possessor of all power in heaven and on earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose or resist His will.
He is the governor among the nations, setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleased Him best.
To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Such is the God of the Bible. How different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom! The conception of deity that prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give heed to the Scripture is a miserable caricature of the truth.
His power is exercised as He wills, when He wills, where He wills. This fact is evidenced on every page of the Scripture.
God is sovereign in the exercise of His grace. If then God loved Jacob and hated Esau, and that before they were born or had done either good or evil, then the reason for His love was not in them, but in God.