Sesame Street's first Afghan Muppet empowers girls

With purple skin and an orange nose, her multi-colored braids wrapped in a headscarf, Zari is Sesame Street's first female, Afghan muppet and she has a message: girl power.

Producers hope the character, who debuted on the local version of the show this month, will provide a much needed boost to gender equality in a country where girls still trail behind boys across the board.

Dressed in traditional garb Zari, whose name means "shimmering" in Dari and Pashto, is confident and inquisitive. Afghan puppeteer Mansoora Shirzad said she hopes the muppet will become a role model for young girls and send messages of empowerment to kids in the country.

"Our goal is to entertain children and educate them," Shirzad told AFP at the Sesame Street recording studio.  
She said she hoped six-year-old Zari will "bring new color to the show and enable us to convey our message."
Known in Afghanistan as "Baghch-e-Simsim," or Sesame Garden, the program debuted in the country in 2011 and is the most popular children's series on television today.

Partly funded by the U.S. aid agency, the show features segments catered to local issues, and includes dubbed content from other Sesame Street versions including from Egypt, Bangladesh, Mexico and Russia.

For her part, Zari - who debuted on April 7 and has appeared in three episodes so far - has a full agenda this season.  

She will promote the virtues of exercising and playing sports, she will speak to a female pediatrician about how to become a doctor, and she will remind Afghanistan's young people to use the traditional Islamic greeting with friends: "Asalaam Alaikum" (peace be upon you).  

The idea of a female role model on television - muppet or otherwise - may seem prosaic...