The Afghan version of “Sesame Street” has acquired its first home-grown character – a six-year-old hijab-wearing girl called Zari.

Zari will make her first appearance on Thursday in the Afghan co-production of the US educational series.

When the Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, girls were banned from going to school and women were rendered almost completely invisible, largely confined to their homes and forbidden from working.

Zari’s very presence on television will serve as a cultural challenge for many Afghans. Today, more than 3 million girls are going to school – up from virtually zero in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan before the US-led invasion in 2001.

But another 2.4 million girls are still not going to school, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).