Over 50 reciters and memorizers from across the globe will participate in the 39th edition of Iran’s International Quran Competition.

The reciters and memorizers have been selected from among those who applied from among 80 countries, the director of the Quran Affairs Center of the State Endowment and Charity Affairs Organization, Hamid Majidimehr, said in a press conference on Sunday.

The number of countries of those who applied for the competition has increased from 70 over the past eight years to 80 in 2023, he said and noted, “This upsurge is significant for the country’s international diplomacy.”

The organizers of the 35th edition of the Quran competition in 2018 said that over 300 reciters and memorizers from 83 countries would participate in the event.

Majidimehr said that the participants have been selected with contributions from the embassies of Iran across the world, and added, “The 2023 competition has been arranged in a way that the entries have deservedly been selected for the contest.”

The competition will be organized at Tehran’s Islamic Summit Conference Hall in early March 2023.

The International Quran Competition is organized by the State Endowment and Charity Affairs Organization annually two weeks before Ramadan.

The Quran Channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting records recitations every year to air during the fasting month.

Due to the new coronavirus epidemic in the country, the 2020 International Quran Competition was postponed and the pandemic forced the 2021 competition to go online.