Abu Dhabi: A 7-year-old Syrian girl who survived a deadly missile attack during the civil war in her country has won the Arab Reading Challenge award, held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates on Thuesday, November 10, 2022.
Sham Al-Bakour, was just six months old when her family’s car was bombed during the violence in Aleppo in December 2015. Her father was killed while she and her mother survived the horrific attack.
Sham has now completed a remarkable journey from tragedy to triumph to win words of praise from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
At the grand conclusion of the Arab Reading Challenge at the magnificent Dubai Opera, Sham was among the 22.27 million participants from 44 countries, receiving the prestigious award at the hands of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Sham Al-Bakour, who was awarded a prize of 1 million Dirham, displayed confidence and grace at such a young age. She won the title after participating in the reading challenge for the first time.
As per a report by Khaleej Times, Sham, who read 70 books to win the competition, said, “I love reading because there’s so much that you can learn so that we can be successful. I invite all children to take part in this competition because it is very rewarding.”
And when the jury asked her about the book she had read more than once, Sham said, “Reading a book three times is better than reading three books at once. The book that must be read frequently is the book that talks about the life of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) because of the teachings that We can learn from it and apply it to our lives.”
Sham Al-Bakour has received great attention from the public and celebrities on social media, for being the youngest contestant in the Arab Reading Challenge.
The pioneers of social networking sites circulated many videos and interviews of the girl, who spoke intelligently and fluently in classical Arabic, and there were those who called her “the kidnapper of Arab hearts” because of her ability and easily to enter people’s hearts quickly.
On the occasion, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, took to Twitter and wrote, “Praise be to God, we concluded today the activities of the Arab Reading Challenge. A competition in which 22 million students from 44 countries participated to read 50 books in each academic year.. And the winner this year is Sham Al-Bakour from our beloved Syria.. Syria is civilization, language and culture.. Syria is science, scholars and history.”
It is noteworthy that the Arab Reading Challenge competition was launched 6 years ago, and requires reading 50 books as a preliminary condition to enter the competition, and 22 million students from 44 countries around the world participated in its edition this year.
Those who qualified for the final stage of the challenge were selected according to specific criteria, following integrated electronic qualifying qualifiers carried out by the judging committees of the “Arab Reading Challenge.”
The Arab Reading Challenge is organized by the “Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives”, and aims to build a generation capable of reading and knowledge and enhancing the status of the Arabic language as a language of science, literature and knowledge production.
