The night in Dubai
The final was held in Dubai on 10 November 2022, and the prize was presented by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and the founder of the competition. Gulf News, Gulf Today and The National all reported the result the same day, as did the Syrian state agency SANA.
The Arab Reading Challenge asks pupils across the Arab world to read set numbers of books and to summarise what they have read, with rounds at school, national and regional level before a televised final. Sham Al Bakour reached it having read 70 books, and at seven she was competing against pupils well into their teens.
Twenty-two million entrants
The figure that gives the result its scale is the entry list: some 22 million pupils, across the Arab world, in a single annual competition. Contests of that size are rare in any field, and reading is not a sport with an obvious objective measure, so the rounds are built on summaries and comprehension rather than speed.
That structure is why the winner's age drew attention. A seven-year-old does not out-read teenagers by volume alone; the final requires discussing the books in front of judges. The competition awards a prize of one million dirhams to its champion.
Aleppo, and what she said about the prize
Sham Al Bakour is from Aleppo, the city at the centre of Syria's civil war. The National reported that her father was killed in December 2015, when the family car was hit and she was six months old. The detail was published by the outlets covering her win and is reported here as they reported it.
Asked about the million-dirham prize, she said she would give it to her mother. It is the line that carried the story across Arabic and English-language media, and it is the only statement of her own that the sources used here record.
What is known about Sham Al Bakour since
Nothing, in the material gathered for this page. The coverage clusters on 10 November 2022 and stops. Her school, her current reading, her family's circumstances and her plans are not documented in these sources, and geniuses.club does not report on the private life of a child beyond what the press published at the time.
That restraint is deliberate. She was seven years old at the moment of the record, and the appetite for updates does not create a right to them.
Why the Arab Reading Challenge exists
The competition was created to raise reading rates among Arab children, and it works by making reading competitive, public and lucrative: school rounds, national finals, a televised ceremony in Dubai and a prize large enough to change a family's circumstances.
Its scale has made its champions genuinely famous across a region of more than twenty countries, which is why a result from a hall in Dubai reached Syrian state media the same evening. For a child from Aleppo in 2022, the platform was larger than any school prize could be.
Watch: Sham Al Bakour on camera
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sham Al Bakour | Syria | Winning the Arab Reading Challenge in Dubai at seven | Age 0 |
| Mariam Amjoun | Morocco | Ten and a half million students read; a nine-year-old from Morocco read be | Age 8 |
| Abdullah Abu Khalaf | Jordan | Twenty-one million students in 52 countries, and a Jordanian teenager won | Age 14 |
| Amnah Al Mansoori | United Arab Emirates | Chosen from 24.8 million students in 46 countries, she took the title join | — |
| Abdullah Al Berri | Qatar | Qatar's champion shared the largest reading prize in the Arab world with a | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- She won the Arab Reading Challenge in Dubai on 10 November 2022, at seven
- She read 70 books during the competition
- The field was reported at about 22 million pupils
- She said she would give the one-million-dirham prize to her mother
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Her date of birth is not published in these sources
- No source used here documents her life after November 2022
- Her school and current studies are not public in this record
- The competition's round-by-round scoring is not set out in these reports
Questions people ask about Sham Al Bakour
How old is Sham Al Bakour?
She was seven at the time of the November 2022 final, which places her birth year at about 2015. No source used here gives a date of birth.
What did Sham Al Bakour win?
The Arab Reading Challenge, the Arab world's largest reading competition, together with its one-million-dirham prize.
How many books did she read?
Seventy, according to the reports of her win.
How many pupils entered the competition?
The entry field was reported at about 22 million pupils across the Arab world.
What did she say she would do with the prize?
She said she would give it to her mother.
Where is Sham Al Bakour now?
The sources used here stop at the November 2022 final. Her situation since is not documented, and this page does not speculate about a child's private life.
Is Sham Al Bakour on Wikipedia?
She has no Wikipedia article.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Sham’s story?
How many books did Sham Al Bakour read for the competition?
Where was the final held?
What did she say she would do with the prize?
Sources
- Watch: Sheikh Mohammed crowns 7-year-old Syrian girl as Arab Reading Champion in Dubai — Gulf News, 2022-11-10
- Syrian girl, 7, who survived horrors of civil war crowned Arab Reading Challenge champion — The National, 2022-11-10
- VIDEO: 7-year-old Syrian girl Sham Al Bakour wins Arab Reading Challenge — Gulf Today, 2022-11-10
- 7-year-old Syrian girl Sham crowned as Arab Reading Challenge Champion — SANA
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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