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At first glance, this new girl on the block wouldn't give Barbie much of a run for her money. After all, Barbie is everything Razanne is not - curvaceous, flashy and loaded with sex appeal. But that's exactly why many Muslim Americans prefer the newer doll.

With her long-sleeved dresses, hijab or Muslim head scarf and, by her creator Ammar Saadeh's own admission, a less-than-flattering bust-line, Razanne is all about modesty and piety.

That image encouraged American Muslim Mimo Debryn of West Bloomfield Township to buy the doll for her daughter, Jenna, four years ago.

"Razanne looks like the majority of women around Jenna," said Debryn. "She loves that doll and always took care of her, giving Razanne a special place in her room, treating her with respect."

"Jenna never tried to take Razanne's hijab off, though Barbie was usually stripped naked," she said as her daughter, 11, curled up on the couch smiling.

For saadeh, the doll not only fills a marketing void but also offers Muslim girls someone they can relate to.

"The main message we try to put forward through the doll is that what matters is what's inside you, not how you look," said Saadeh, who set up NoorArt Inc with his wife and a few other investors.

The michigan-based company, founded about seven years ago, sells the Razanne doll and a number of other toys geared toward Muslim children.

"It doesn't matter if you're tall or short, thin or fat, beautiful or not, the real beauty seen by God and fellow Muslims is what's in your soul."

While barbie has a curvaceous figure, Razanne was designed with the body of a preteen.

Her aspirations are those of a modern Muslim woman. On the drawing board for future dolls are Dr Razanne and possibly even astronaut Razanne. There's also Muslim Girl Scout Razanne, complete with a cassette recording of the Muslim Scout's oath.

Laila, the Arab League's answer to Barbie, offered girls of the league's 22-member states a culturally acceptable alternative to Barbie's lifestyle. But she never made it to store shelves.

Sara and Dara were launched a couple of years ago - Iran's version of Barbie and her beau, Ken. The two were offshoots of a children's cartoon in Iran.

But saadeh said those dolls are more "cultural and don't have mass appeal in the Middle East."

In the United States, Mattel, which makes Barbie, markets a Moroccan Barbie and sells a collector's piece named Leyla in the Girls From Around the World collection. Leyla's elaborate costume and tale of being taken as a slave in the court of a Turkish sultan are intended to convey the trials and tribulations of one Muslim girl in the 1720s.

"It's no surprise that they'd try to portray a Middle Eastern Barbie either as a belly dancer or a concubine," said Saadeh, who noted that countering such stereotypes was one of his main aims in developing Razanne.

Razanne's launch five years ago met with success, Saadeh said. While declining to give specific sales figures, he said the doll is marketed and sold throughout the United States, Canada, Singapore and Germany and soon will be sold in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

In michigan alone, there are roughly 300,000 Arab Americans, meaning there's a homegrown market for the doll.

Razanne is NoorArt's best seller by far, followed by tapes and CDs of children's religious songs such as "We Love Muhammad," which has been set to the tune of "Yankee Doodle."

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