Tehran, Dec 14, IRNA - The Executive Secretary of the 20 and 20 Reading Books Challenge, Mehdi Mohammadi said on Monday that the constant participation in this challenge will lead to an increase of 480 million minutes of per capita reading in Iran by the end of the Iranian calendar year (will end on March 20, 2020).

Mohammadi said that the Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran Municipality kicked off the challenge to promote the culture of reading books among the Iranians.

Referring to the motto of the challenge which is "Let's read books for 20 minutes every night", he noted that the inspiring move invites people to study for 20 minutes every night at 20:00 local time.

The issue of book reading has always been an important concern of the Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran Municipality and the organization has held several programs to encourage people to read books, he reiterated.

The head of the Media Cultural Center added that amid the outbreak of the Covid-19 disease and the restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic, the 20 and 20 Book Reading Challenge provides people with a good opportunity to use their free time to read more books.

The program has been designated to urge families to read books together to turn reading books into public culture, he said, adding that all sections of the society are being targeted in this challenge.

According to the cultural official, people of all walks of life and different ages can read books together through joining the challenge and share valuable books.

He stated that about 300 people join the 20 and 20 Book Reading Challenge day by day, also anticipating that nearly 40,000 people would take part in the challenge by the end of the Iranian calendar year.

If all the participants study faithfully for 20 minutes every night, the per capita reading would increase to 480 million minutes by the end of the year, which is equivalent to 1.2 million books with an average of 200 pages, he argued.

Mohammadi further underlined that more than 300 renowned figures joined the challenge within the first 10 days of this challenge.

The promotional products of the challenge, which are available on the virtual pages of all cultural and art centers of the Tehran Municipality, have been visited over two million times in the first 10 days of the project, he concluded.

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