Iftah Ya Simsim

Iftah Ya Simsim (; meaning "Open Sesame") is the first international co-production of the American children's television series Sesame Street created in the Arabian world. It premiered in Kuwait and Morocco on September 14, 1979, and was broadcast in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, running until June 23, 1989. The program remained well-known decades after it went off the air.

A few months after its premiere, Iftah Ya Simsim became one of the most popular and successful children's programs in many Arab states. Critics called it "one of the most successful pan-Arab collaborations of educators, creators, writers and artists from the Middle East".

The present show is a collaboration between the Abu Dhabi Education Council, Twofour54, Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States, and Bidaya Media.

History

A few months after the 1969 debut of Sesame Street on PBS in the US, producers from several countries all around the world approached the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, later the Sesame Workshop, or "the Workshop"), the organization responsible for the show's production, to create and produce versions of Sesame Street in their countries. Co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney was approached by German public television officials about a year after the US version debuted. Many years later, Cooney recalled, "To be frank, I was really surprised, because we thought we were creating the quintessential American show. We thought the Muppets were quintessentially American, and it turns out they're the most international characters ever created". She hired former CBS executive Mike Dann, who left commercial television to become her assistant, as a CTW vice president. One of Dann's tasks was to field offers to produce versions of Sesame Street in other countries. By summer 1970, he had established the first international agreements for what the CTW would come to call "co-productions."

Kuwait's 1980 census, conducted shortly after the original show's premiere, showed that 48% of its citizens were "either totally illiterate or ... barely [able to] read or write". Several studies in Kuwait showed that parents' illiteracy has an adverse effect on their children's educational and social development. Half of the Kuwaitis living in the country's rural areas were illiterate. Literacy rates for women and girls were worse: UNESCO reported in 2005 that they "account for two thirds of the region's illiterates". In 2000, before the revived show aired, the Arab region had some of the world's lowest adult literacy rates, at just over 62%, which was significantly below the world average of 84% and the average in developing countries (almost 76.5%).

thumb|upright|alt=Black and white photo of a smiling woman about fifty years of age and wearing a jacket and tied-up scarf|Sesame Street co-creator [[Joan Ganz Cooney, in 1985. Cooney was surprised that other countries were interested in producing their own versions of the American show.]]

In 1976, the Arab fund for Social and Economic Development held a series of workshops and seminars, attended by educators, mass media officers, and social planners, about preschool education in the region. In 1978, educators, mass media officers, and social planners agreed to adopt Sesame Street as a feasible and economical solution for the low attendance in preschools. They approached the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), the producers of the American show, and purchased the rights to create an Arab version for US$2.5 million. With funding from the Arab Gulf States Joint Program Production Institution, efforts were made to create a co-production for the children of Kuwait and the Arab world. This program, called Iftah Ya Simsim, premiered in Kuwait and Morocco in 1979 and ran until 1989, when the Gulf War stopped production. It was broadcast in 22 Arab countries, and continued to be well-known decades after it went off the air. In June 2010, the Sesame Workshop and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS), a regional Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) organization dedicated to education, research, and development, agreed to bring back the show.

Original series

Iftah Ya Simsim was the first children's educational TV program of its kind in the Arab world and the first Sesame Street co-production in the region. It was the first co-production to use Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). purchasing the rights to create an Arab version for US$2.5 million, and bringing in experts from throughout the Arab world "to introduce an all encompassing Arabic curriculum that would teach and cultivate Arab values and culture".

Iftah Ya Simsim premiered in Kuwait and Morocco in September 1979, and was broadcast in all Arabic-speaking countries excluding Egypt. Geography was highlighted, especially the location of countries and their cities and capitals, which had the secondary effect of helping children increase their feelings of belonging and feeling proud of their Arab heritage. Children's social awareness, especially their comprehension of social roles and their functions, was also emphasized.

Unlike the American show, Iftah Ya Simsim covered the topic of spirituality because of the importance of religion in Arab culture, so the producers' goals included teaching children about Islamic principles, positive social behavior, personal manners, and the importance of traits like honesty, respect for parents, loyalty, and social interaction.

New Muppets were created, inspired by cultural traditions in the Arab world, from the shadow puppets of Syria to the puppets of Egypt, some of the oldest puppets in the world. Linguist Kees Versteegh stated that the language used in Iftah Ya Simsim was "based on an explicit didactic and linguistic concept". The show's developers decided to use specific aspects of the language. Despite the absence of case endings in the dialects spoken by many of its users, the producers used them and other features of MSA. They also specified which features should be used sparingly, such as passive verb forms, and which features they wanted to completely avoid, including certain prepositions. According to Versteegh, "These principles have been followed rather closely". Critics called it "one of the most successful pan-Arab collaborations of educators, creators, writers and artists from the Middle East". The show continued to trigger nostalgia in its fans, some of whom watched its reruns well into the 1990s. Rym Ghazal of The National claimed "No Arabic children's television show was as popular and influential in the Middle East in the 1980s as Iftah Ya Sim Sim...because it offered an alternative way of learning that hardly existed in the Arab world at the time, just as Sesame Street had previously done in the West". In 1981, however, the JPPI invited children from Arab countries to Kuwait to assess how they assimilated the program. Their attitudes about the show were assessed by education, social, and media specialists, who found that most viewers had benefited from watching it. Parents reported that their children's language use and ability improved, and the JPPI received many letters of appreciation and was commended for their efforts in producing the show.

Misbah Al-Khayr and Hashim Al-Samira'i, in an article from the 1995 book Children in the Muslim Middle East, reported on a study that sought to evaluate the influence of Iftah Ya Simsim on its Baghdad viewers' knowledge about language, general information, mathematics, science, and moral principles. The study found that 85% of all children residing in Baghdad had watched it and that they interacted with and were attached to many of its characters, who exposed viewers to the regional accents. The most popular segments featured cartoons, songs, and puppets. The show's viewers demonstrated an increase in their understanding and knowledge in all areas, especially information about their social and natural environments.

Revival

In 2010, the Sesame Workshop and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS), which recognized "the deep love for the program" felt throughout the Arab world, started talks about relaunching Iftah Ya Simsim. The ABEGS and the Sesame Workshop signed an agreement to revive the series for Arab television, with content suitable for a new generation of children. The show was the first educational initiative sponsored by the Mubadala Development Company, the investment vehicle of the Abu Dhabi government. The production company Bidaya Media was chosen to produce the show; in 2013, the company was housed at Twofour54, the United Arab Emirates version of public television. Books, DVDs, CDs, online material and outreach programs for children, parents, and teachers were produced. after, according to Al-Sharhan, a year of designing the show, "with input from child development experts, educators and cultural consultants". They cast Arabic-speaking performers, although no prior acting experience was required.

In February 2017, Bidaya Media started production on season two of the relaunch of Iftah Ya Simsim, Noura Sadaka and Natheer Khawaldeh did not return for the new season. In addition, two new Muppets were introduced to the cast, Ka'aki (Cookie Monster) and Elmo. Puppeteer and voice actor Ammar Sabban was hired to replace Natheer Khawaldeh as Gargour and was also chosen to play Ka'aki, and Abdullah Rafa also joined the puppeteer team to play Elmo.

Episodes

Series overview

Notes

Works cited

Al-Khayr, Misbah; Hashim Al-Samira'i (1995). "Iftah Ya Simsim (Open Sesame) and Children in Baghdad". Translated by Ahmed Sweity. In Elizabeth Warnock Fernea (ed.). Children in the Muslim Middle East. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, pp. 464–468.
Al-Khulaifi, Ibrahim Mohammed (1984). An Investigation of the Viewing Behavior toward Iftah Ya Simsim by Kuwaiti Kindergartners (PhD). Ohio State University. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
Cole, Charlotte F.; Beth A. Richman and Susan A. McCann Brown (2001). "The World of Sesame Street Research". In Shalom M. Fisch and Rosemarie T. Truglio (eds.). "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. .
Davis, Michael (2008). Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. New York: Viking Press. .
Gikow, Louise A. (2009). Sesame Street: A Celebration—Forty Years of Life on the Street. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal. .
Hammoud, Hassan R. (2005). "Illiteracy in the Arab world". Literacy for Life. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006 (UNESCO). Retrieved July 2, 2014.