VIDEO: Meet Afghanistan's First Female SESAME STREET Character 'Zari'!

In her first interview in the United States, Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric sat down with SESAME STREET's first Afghanistan's female character Zari and EVP of Global Impact and Philanthropy Sherrie Westin. Watch the interview below!

Zari discussed her love of other cultures, her experience of meeting the first lady of Afghanistan, Rula Ghani, and even teaches Katie how to speak Pashto. Westin also touches upon the importance of having the first Afghan muppet to be female and how Zari's introduction has since influenced the community's view of educating women.

Interview highlights include:

Zari on her first trip to New York City - "I love it so much! The buildings are so tall and the people have been so nice, I've met so many interesting people and I really like that you call this city 'The Big Apple.'"

Zari on meeting the First Lady of Afghanistan Rula Ghani - "I wasn't really nervous or intimidated, I was just so excited! She was really really nice. And I don't know if you saw in the picture but we matched, because both of our hijabs were the same color!"

Sherrie Westin on the importance of having a female muppet in Afghanistan - "This is a culture where girls aren't often valued in the same way and aren't given the same opportunities, and we know that through the power of littler characters like Zari, that there's a great ability to not only inspire young girls, but I think equally important, is the fact that we can model for young boys that it's ok for a girl to have an education. And for women to have different roles and responsibilities....not only are we reaching girls who may have no means of education, but we are modeling important culture changes."

Sherrie Westin on Zari and Baghch-E-Simsim's impact on the Afghan community - "We've found many Afghan mothers have said that it's Baghch-E-Simsim and Zari that have changed their husband's mind about sending their daughters to school...I think that's so powerful."

Sherrie Westin on governmental partnerships - "We never go into a country unless we are welcome, invited, and we always partner with the ministry of education. We find like-minded partners, the right broadcasters, and we work together with the educators of that country. So it's really a unique model because we're making sure that it's seen as local, that it's addressing the issues of the children of that country, in their culture in their language, and we know that children learn best when they see themselves and they can identify with those characters and those circumstances."

Sherrie Westin on the State Department's involvement & the local U.S. embassy funding this production of SESAME STREET in Afghanistan - "It's not that we're just exporting a U.S. version of the show, but we have received a lot of funding over the years for different projects for say USAID, for South Africa, Bangladesh, India. In Afghanistan it actually was the local U.S. embassy working in Afghanistan who realized that SESAME STREET could be so beneficial. So for the first time we received funding from the local U.S. embassy for this production."