In the last few years, many Egyptian parents began voicing their frustration with the lack of children’s content made solely in Egyptian Arabic. As more and more families in Egypt started boycotting Disney, options for children’s content that is culturally appropriate and accepted by Egyptian families became scarce. Last week, three young Egyptians, Danny Arafa, children’s author and illustrator, Nadine Genedy, founder of BooklyEverAfterStorytelling, and Esraa Saleh, founder of SuperAbla launched a podcast called ‘Kesas Le Atfal Elnaharda’ (Stories for the children of today). With a target audience of Egyptian children aged five to nine, stories in the podcast are told in the Egyptian Arabic dialect. “The three of us have experience with children’s literature in Egypt, so we meet a lot of parents, librarians, and teachers, who complain that their students always hate Arabic books because they’re in [Modern Standard Arabic, which] they aren’t familiar with, and that they don’t speak in their day to day lives,” Arafa tells Egyptian Streets. “They go for English books because they’re easier to read and consume. So we thought, why not create a podcast that speaks in Egyptian Arabic since it’s the…
This Egyptian Podcast is Teaching Children About Self-Care, Leadership, and Dealing With Rejection
September 7, 2023
