What happened
Khaleej Times reported on 23 October 2024 that three students had each won Dh500,000 at the eighth Arab Reading Challenge. Kady, 11, from Saudi Arabia, was one of them, having outperformed 1,409,990 participants from her own country before she reached the regional final.
The Dubai Media Office recorded the ceremony the same day: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, crowned the champions at Dubai Opera. She shared the title with Hatem Al Turkawi of Syria, nine, and Salsabil Sawalha of Palestine, 17.
The national round
The figure of 1,409,990 is worth pausing on, because it describes a domestic competition larger than most countries' entire school population entering a single contest. Saudi Arabia runs the challenge through its schools, and a pupil must win class, school, district and national rounds before travelling to Dubai.
Each round is an oral examination on books already read and summarised across the year. A child who survives that sequence has been questioned by judges many times over on content, argument and language, which is why the winners tend to speak, as Kady did, about work rather than luck.
Poetry, and what she reads for
Khaleej Times reported that she enjoys reading and reciting poetry. In Arabic, recitation is a discipline in its own right, with memorisation and delivery judged as closely as comprehension, and it sits naturally alongside the reading challenge's oral rounds.
Her quoted line, "After lots of effort, toil, and tremendous fatigue, here I am, successful", is the sentence of someone describing a year of work in public at eleven. It is also a corrective to the way prodigy stories are usually told, as though the ability arrived rather than the hours.
The competition around her
The eighth edition drew 28.2 million participants from 229,620 schools across 50 countries, with 154,643 supervising teachers, according to Khaleej Times. Beyond the three individual champions, Al-Ebdah School in Dubai won Dh1 million as the top school, Mohammed Al-Fateh Al-Rifai took the Dh100,000 community champion prize for a non-Arab country, and Mohamed Ahmed Hassan of Egypt won the People of Determination category.
That is a prize structure designed to reward institutions as well as individuals, which is how the competition sustains participation numbers on this scale year after year.
What is documented, and what is not
Firmly established: her age of 11, the number of Saudi entrants she finished ahead of, the prize, the date and venue, her interest in poetry and the words she used on stage. The research record notes that outlets transliterate her name differently: Khaleej Times writes Kady Bint Misfer, while Dubai government releases use Kadi Khathaami or Kadi bint Musaffar Al Khathaami.
Not established: how many books she read, her city or school, her family, her date of birth, or anything since October 2024. She is a child, and this page keeps to a single documented evening and the year of work behind it.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatem Al Turkawi | Syria | Being crowned an Arab Reading Challenge champion in 2024 | Age 9 |
| Kady Bint Misfer | Saudi Arabia | Being crowned an Arab Reading Challenge champion in 2024 | Age 11 |
| Hadeel Anwar Al Zubair | Sudan | Winning the fourth Arab Reading Challenge | Age 13 |
| Afaf Raed Sherif | Palestine | Winning the second Arab Reading Challenge | Age 17 |
| Salsabil Sawalha | Palestine | Being crowned an Arab Reading Challenge champion in 2024 | Age 17 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- She was crowned an Arab Reading Challenge champion at Dubai Opera on 23 October 2024
- She was 11 and had finished ahead of 1,409,990 Saudi participants (Khaleej Times)
- She won Dh500,000, one of three equal champion prizes
- She enjoys reading and reciting poetry
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No source read states her date of birth, city or school
- The number of books she read is not published in the sources read
- Nothing documents her family or her life after October 2024
Questions people ask about Kady Bint Misfer
How old is Kady Bint Misfer?
She was 11 when she was crowned in October 2024. No source read here gives her date of birth.
How many entrants did she beat?
1,409,990 participants from Saudi Arabia, according to Khaleej Times.
How much did she win?
Dh500,000, one of three equal champion prizes in the 2024 edition.
What did she say when she won?
"After lots of effort, toil, and tremendous fatigue, here I am, successful."
What does she like to read?
Khaleej Times reported that she enjoys reading and reciting poetry.
Why is her name spelled in different ways?
Transliteration from Arabic varies between outlets. Khaleej Times uses Kady Bint Misfer; Dubai government releases use Kadi Khathaami.
Is Kady Bint Misfer on Wikipedia?
The research record found no standalone Wikipedia article about her.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Kady’s story?
How many Saudi entrants did Kady Bint Misfer finish ahead of?
What did she say she had been through to win?
How many students shared the 2024 champion title?
Sources
- UAE: 3 students win Dh500,000 prize each in Arab Reading Challenge — Khaleej Times, 2024-10-23
- Mohammed bin Rashid crowns Arab Reading Champions in 2024 — Dubai Media Office, 2024-10-23
- Mohammed bin Rashid crowns Syria's Hatem Tarkawi, Saudi's Kadi Khathaami, Palestine's Salsabil Sawalha as 2024 Arab Reading Champions — Dubai Protocol, 2024-10-23
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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