DHAHRAN: The King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture wrapped up its ninth annual Iqra competition on Saturday, drawing 16,000 attendees, including literary Nobel laureates. Senior leaders, including Amin Nasser, the president and chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco, attended the two-day event in Dhahran. During speaking sessions, Nobel literature laureates Olga Tokarczuk and Abdulrazak Gurnah also participated and shared their perspectives. The announcement of the competition’s winners followed a series of events for the visitors.
Ten-year-old Moroccan Fatima Kettani took home the Promising Reader award, and Moroccan Meryem Bououd was named Reader of the Year. While Tarbiyat Al-Ajial of the Private International School, Hafr Al-Batin, Saudi Arabia, won the Reading School honour, Iraqi Hira Karkhi took home the Text of the Year honour. The People’s Reader award went to Saudi Safia Al-Ghubari, and the Reading Ambassador award went to teacher Najla Ghazi Al-Suhaimi. Ithra’s program director, Noura Al-Zamil, discussed the competition’s noteworthy achievements since its launch in 2013.
In its nine iterations, Iqra has provided 48,000 hours of instructional programming and drawn over 225,000 applicants. Additionally, it has hosted over 600 speakers from 30 different nations, including three Nobel Prize-winning authors. In order to encourage a reading culture among Arab youth, Al-Zamil emphasised Ithra’s ongoing efforts to innovate by introducing new components like the Iqra Travels, Iqra Marathon, and Kitabiya Exhibit. Cultural discussions were part of the closing event, and Tokarczuk spoke about literature as a means of bridging linguistic and cultural divides.
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