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 Arab world. It premiered in Kuwait on September 14, 1979 and was broadcast in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, running until April 6, 1990. The program continued to be well-known decades after it went off the air. 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 and illiteracy that plagued the region. 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.
Abdesslam Yassine
Yassine was born in Marrakesh. He worked as a teacher and a school inspector for the Ministry of Education, and from 1965 on, was a member of one of the most famous Moroccan Sufi brotherhoods, the Boutchichiyya. Yassine reportedly fell out with the leadership of the brotherhood over its refusal to engage more directly in political matters, and founded his own organisation. Yassine was jailed in a mental asylum for three years for publishing an open letter to King Hassan II denouncing his rule as unIslamic. Following his release he was kept under house arrest for many years, before eventually being released in the early years of the rule of King Mohammed VI. Yassine's many publications include "L'Islam ou le Deluge" (Islam or the Flood), probably the best known of his works. He died, aged 84, on 13 December 2012. He was married to Khadija Al Malki who died in late March 2015.