Sharjah Bans Mannequins From Shops

DUBAI, 14 February 2008 — Sharjah, a member of the United Arab Emirates, has banned realistic mannequins from window displays and in shops, a newspaper reported yesterday.

The municipality of the emirate, adjacent to booming Western-oriented Dubai, slapped the ban on in line with a fatwa (religious edict) issued by the local Islamic affairs department, Al-Emarat Al-Yaum said.

The fatwa bans the use of the dummies in windows and inside shops to display clothes unless “the head is taken away or the features of the face are erased,” municipality official Khaled Al-Jabri told the paper.