Afghanistan's Sesame Street star gets proud brother muppet

KABUL - Zeerak the bespectacled orange muppet is the latest innovation from Sesame Street in Afghanistan: a children's TV character who reveres his educated older sister, brought on to screens to show a new generation that a woman's place is beyond the home.

Producers are betting the new character - a 4-year-old boy dressed in a traditional shalwar kameez and a waistcoat embroidered in Afghan national colors will inspire millions of children - and their parents - to see the value in education.

Zeerak's big sister Zari, introduced last year with great fanfare as the first Afghan muppet to join internationally cherished characters such as Big Bird and Elmo, has already proved a success on the local version of Sesame Street, known as Baghch-e-Simsim.