WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch ‘Smarter, stronger, kinder’: Interests at stake in the remake of Iftah ya Simsim for Gulf children Sakr, N. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Sakr, N. (2018) ‘Smarter, stronger, kinder’: Interests at stake in the remake of Iftah ya Simsim for Gulf children. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 11 (1), pp. 9-28, which has been published in final form at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18739865-01101002. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: ((http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail
[email protected] ‘Smarter, stronger, kinder’: Interests at stake in the remake of Iftah ya Simsim for Gulf children Naomi Sakr When the 21st century Gulf co-production of Sesame Street was launched on air from Abu Dhabi in September 2015 it marked the culmination of many years of collaboration among several institutions in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the US. Called Iftah ya Simsim (Open Sesame), like its predecessor, which had first aired from Kuwait in 1979 and run to 130 episodes, the new series of educational programmes for pre-schoolers was described by the managing director of its Gulf production company, Bidaya Media, as reflecting the ‘passion and commitment’ of ‘dozens of individuals across international boundaries’ (Sesame Workshop 2014).