TEHRAN – Iranian reciter Amir-Hossein Rahmati has won first prize at the 39th edition of Iran’s International Quran Competition.

He received his prize from President Ebrahim Raisi during the closing ceremony of the competition on Wednesday evening at Tehran’s Islamic Summit Conference Hall.

Seyyed Amir Hashemi from Afghanistan was selected as runner-up and Abdullah Fikri from Indonesia won third prize in the reciting section.

Rahmati has been awarded in several other international and Iranian competitions.  

He won the first prize at the 6th International Quran Competition for School Students in 2019. He also took first place at the 44th edition of Iran’s Nationwide Quran Competition in 2021.

Mohammad-Javad Javari from Iran took first place in the tarteel competition of the 39th International Quran Competition.

Mohammad Yar from Kyrgyzstan and Ismail Hamdan from Lebanon won the runner-up prize and third prize in this section respectively.

First prize in the memorizing category was also given to Iranian reciter Sina Tabbakhi. The runner-up and third prizes went to Abd al-Alim Abd al-Rahim from Kenya and Sheikh Mahmud Hassan from Bangladesh.

In the women’s memorizing competition, first prize was given to Amina Ibrahim from Ghana. Hajar Mehralian from Iran and Nasrin Khalidi from Algeria won second and third prizes.

First prize in the women’s tarteel competition was given to Fahimeh Asgharzadeh from Iran.

Layla Afara from Lebanon and Amaneh Shirzad from Afghanistan won second and third prizes.

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 are awarded 1.5 billion rials (over $2,800 based on Iran’s free-market exchange rate: $1 = 530,000 rials). 

Runners-up received cash prizes of 1.2 billion rials and third-place winners were awarded cash prizes of 900 million rials.

Fifty-two reciters and memorizers from across the world participated in the competition, which ran with the motto “One Book, One Ummah” for four days.

Photo: Iranian reciter Amir-Hossein Rahmati performs during the closing ceremony of the 39th International Quran Competition at Tehran’s Islamic Summit Conference Hall on February 22, 2023. (Fars/Mehdi Marizad)

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