Numbers are not usually associated with qualitative assessments but in Wafaa’s case they do indicate how keen a reader she is: between the age of 14 and 17 Wafaa has read 150 books. Hardly surprising, then, that she has qualified for the Arab Reading Challenge, organised yearly by the philanthropic foundation Mohammed bin Rashid Global Initiatives – a competition that aims to promote reading among Arabic-speaking youth around the world.
«Last May, I joined the Italian qualifiers as a representative of UWC Adriatic and was selected to represent Italy at the finals in Dubai». There Wafaa did so well that she ranked as one of the top ten students from Arab communities around the world out of approximately 2.2 million participants in last year’s challenge.
When asked to share her preferences, Wafaa says that both printed books and e-books are fine. «I spend at least one hour a day reading. I really enjoy politics, English and Palestinian literature; I am particularly fond of historical novels because I find the combination of fiction and history really interesting».
When she arrived in Duino in August 2021 Wafaa could only say two sentences in English “My name is Wafaa” and “I am Palestinian”. Since then she has made huge progress and reading a great deal in English has been part of her strategy to improve her command of the language. «I am also very grateful to my teachers, who have also helped me choose the list of books to read for the competition».
For Wafaa, reading is not just something she does for pleasure, it is also instrumental for her emancipation. «I feel very strongly about this: I really believe that knowledge means power and I could never give up reading: it’s not just something that I enjoy, it is part of my identity».
