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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Khweneri Kara is an intellectual establishment where people read and access books in Erbil. In early February 2019, it opened a book fair displaying 10,000 books in Kurdish, Arabic and English. Last year, it held four reading competitions.

In this project, 600 readers took part and they were challenged with reading 40 books in nine months and then submitting reviews to the library. People, who could do it, were awarded the books. In total, 20,086 books were read and given out to readers.

The event evolved with Kweneri Kara 2, 3 and 4. Kweneri Kara means “active readers.”

In the second iteration, 500 readers participated and were challenged to read 20 books in six months. It a saw 6,792 books were read.

Five hundred readers took part in the next phase, faced with also reading 20 books in six months – 9,041 books were read in this project.

In Kweneri Kara 4, 250 people read 20 books in six months. In total, 4,547 books were read.

Literacy is relatively high across social classes in the Kurdistan Region; however, many of the most popular books in the Kurdistan Region are authored by those in the diaspora.