TEHRAN – The 39th edition of Iran’s International Quran Competition opened at Tehran’s Islamic Summit Conference Hall on Saturday evening.Fifty-two reciters and memorizers from across the world are participating in the competition, which will run for four days.Mehdi Khamushi, director of the State Endowment and Charity Affairs Organization, the main organizer of the Quran competition, said that this year’s contest is organized with the motto “One Book, One Ummah”.He added that the participants have been selected from 150 reciters and memorizers, which took part in the preliminary stage of the competition.Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaeili and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf were among the guests at the opening ceremony of the event.Earlier in December, the director of the Quran Affairs Center of the State Endowment and Charity Affairs Organization, Hamid Majidimehr, said that the participants have been selected with contributions from the embassies of Iran across the world.He added, “The 2023 competition has been arranged in a way that the entries have deservedly been selected for the contest.”  In order to support the local currency, he noted that the winners will be awarded cash in rials, the standard unit of money in Iran.Top winners in different categories will be awarded 1.5 billion rials (about $3,200 based on Iran’s free-market exchange rate: $1 = 470,000 rials). Runners-up will be awarded 1.2 billion rials and third-place winners will receive a cash prize of 900 million rials.He did not make any comment about the cash prizes for overseas winners. The International Quran Competition is organized annually a few weeks before Ramadan at Tehran’s Islamic Summit Conference Hall.The Quran Channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting records recitations every year to air during the fasting month.Due to the new coronavirus epidemic in the country, the 2020 International Quran Competition was postponed and the pandemic forced the 2021 competition to go online.Photo: Overseas reciters attend the 39th International Quran Competition at the Islamic Summit Conference Hall in Tehran on February 18, 2023.

(Mehr/Saeidreza Razavi)MMS/YAW