TEHRAN – The Children’s Book Council of Iran has announced the country’s nominations for the IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award and the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award.

Children’s literature expert Zohreh Qaini was nominated for the award in 2021 and the Iran-based Afghan book reading promoter Nader Musavi received the nomination for 2022.

67-year-old Qaini is a Children’s literature translator, lecturer, researcher and historian. She is the co-writer of the 10-volume research book “The History of Children’s Literature in Iran”. 

She is the director of the Read with Me project. She also served as a member of the IBBY Executive Committee from 2016 to 2020.

As a foreign member of the Iranian Association of Writers for Children and Youth, Musavi seeks reading programs in Afghanistan.

The Children’s Book Council of Iran has previously nominated Musavi for the 2021 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a prestigious Swedish honor to promote children’s and youths’ literature in the world.

In addition, the Children Cultural Development Center has been nominated for the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award in 2022.  

The IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award has been established by the Shenzhen iRead Foundation and IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) to encourage a real commitment to the cause of reading promotion in the hope of spreading this dedication to others around the globe.

The IBBY-iRead Award jury selects two winners every year. The two winners each receive 200,000 RMB Yuan and, in addition, 150,000 RMB Yuan is given to a non-profit children’s reading promotion project of their choice.

Swedish-Dutch author Marit Törnqvist and Chinese educator Zhu Yongxin won the 2020 IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award.

The IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award is given biennially to one group or institution whose outstanding activities are judged to be making a lasting contribution to reading promotion programs for children and young people. The Award was established in 1986 and is sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

The prize of $10,000 and a diploma are presented to the winning project at the biennial IBBY Congress.

The winner of the 2020 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award is Casa Cuna Cuenteros of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Photo: This combination photo shows a logo for the IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award and Iran’s nominees Zohreh Qaini and Nader Musavi.

MMS/YAW