Afghanistan's first home-grown Sesame Street Muppet, a six-year-old female called Zari, has made her on-screen debut.

Producers hope the sassy, fun puppet girl will help inspire young girls in a country where women were until recently completely excluded from schooling.

Zari wears a headscarf with her school uniform, which unlike that for most Afghan girls is not black but pale blue. Otherwise she will appear mainly bare-headed.

Afghan puppeteer, Mansoora Shirzad (right) perfroms a segment with Sesame Street's new character, a 6-year-old Afghan girl called Zari, during a recording session for her first appearance on the local version of the show in Kabul, Afghanistan

Zari, whose name means 'shimmering' in Afghanistan's two official languages, Dari and Pashtu - made her debut on the Afghan version of the show, 'Baghch-e-Simsin', meaning 'Sesame Garden', on Thursday.

She joined at the beginning of its fifth season, alongside worldwide favourites such as Elmo and Big Bird.

With Sesame Street being the most-watched children's programme in Afghanistan, she has a vital role to play.

Although many of the characters on the show are non-gender specific, producers said they felt it was important to make the character a girl to help overcome the country's endemic misogyny.

Clemence Quint, program manager for Lapis Communications, the Afghan partner of the Sesame Street Workshop, said: 'Every Afghan can relate to Zari.

'Zari is a female because in Afghanistan we thought it was really important to emphasize the fact that a little girl could do as much as everybody else.'

Zari, whose name means 'shimmering' in Afghanistan's two official languages, Dari and Pashtu - made her debut on the Afghan version of the show, 'Baghch-e-Simsin', meaning 'Sesame Garden', on Thursday. She is pictured here playing with a child on the set

Clemence Quint, program manager for Lapis Communications, said: 'Zari is a female because in Afghanistan we thought it was really important to emphasize the fact that a little girl could do as much as everybody else'

Zari - who has purple skin, an orange nose and multi-coloured hair, and an infectious giggle - was designed to be a 'universal' character for all Afghans

Zari - who has purple skin, an orange nose and multi-coloured hair, as well as an infectious giggle - was designed to be a 'universal' character for all Afghans.

Her costumes incorporate fabrics and designs from all the country's ethnic groups - predominantly Pashtoon, Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara.

Also, her skin and hair were designed to ensure that Zari cannot be identified with any specific ethnicity, but rather with all of them.

Producers of the show also teamed up with Afghanistan's Ministry of Education in a bid to reduce any cultural resistance to the character.

Mansoora Shirzad, 20, who voices Zari, said: 'I hope she will have a positive impact on our kids, will make the program interesting, and will bring some new colour to it, enabling us to convey the messages that our children need to know.'

Zari's costumes incorporate fabrics and designs from all the country's ethnic groups - predominantly Pashtoon, Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara

Sesame Street is Afghanistan's most popular children's TV programme. It already has a multi-cultural line-up, which includes Muppets in Bangladesh, Egypt and India who each do separate segments on their own national programmes

Afghanistan now has about five million children under the age of five, but about one-third of them are not in school.

Zari will be featured in segments about health, exercise and well-being, and will interview a doctor and other professionals to find out what she would need to do to become one herself.

She follows female Muppets like Chamki in India and Kami in South Africa who play a key role in locally produced Sesame Street co-productions around the world.

The themes of this year's Sesame Street, which are decided by producers in New York, will be cultural identity and female empowerment.