Playing with dolls

Question

A man makes dolls and gives them to his girl pupils, and he also brings them jewellery and the like for dressing the dolls. If anyone forbids it, he declares it permissible for girls’ play and cites as evidence the practice of Hazrat ʿAʾisha Siddiqa ﵂. This man also leads the prayer as imam. What needs to be established is: is making dolls and girls’ playing with them permissible or not?

Answer

What were the dolls of Hazrat ʿAʾisha Siddiqa ﵂ like — of cloth, or of iron, copper, brass or clay? And did they have hands, feet, eyes, a nose, a mouth and other limbs, or not? Until the one citing this evidence investigates these matters, his argument for making and selling the dolls current in our time will not be valid.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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