“Sesame Street” has added a new female Muppet to its Afghanistan version of the show in order to bring attention to issues of female empowerment in a country where many girls still do not attend school.
Six-year-old Zari will be joining the fifth season of “Baghch-e-Simsim,” Afghanistan’s version of “Sesame Street.”
A YouTube video debuting the new character claims Zari will appear in segments about “girls’ empowerment, national identity, physical health.”
Sesame Workshop’s executive vice president of global impact and philanthropy, Sherrie Westin, told Reuters, “The exciting part about Zari is that she is modeling for young girls that it is wonderful to go to school and that it's ok to dream about having a career.”
Reuters notes Sesame Workshop “partnered with the Afghan education ministry in the hope of reducing any cultural resistance to Zari and the ideas she will help to introduce.”
According to 2011 data provided by UNICEF, only 2.4 million girls and 4.6 million boys are enrolled in primary or secondary education. UNICEF also claims the literacy rate among women is 13 percent (compared to 39 percent for men).
Sesame Workshop states, “Our locally developed Baghch-e-Simsim program is designed to do just that: deliver lessons of literacy, math, and life skills to millions of Afghan children, with a special emphasis on girls’ education and cultural awareness. The need is enormous. Less than two-thirds of Afghan children are enrolled in primary school, a rate that’s even lower for girls.”
Sesame Workshop claims 81 percent of children in between the ages of three and seven in Afghanistan have watched “Baghch-e-Simsin.”
Westin explained, "Part of the power of the broadcast and Zari's potential as a role model is to reach children and parents where they may not have access to other educational content.”