Hojat-ol-Islam Ali Qassemi, an official and spokesman for the organizing committee, said that 57 of the contestants made it to the semifinal round in different categories.
He noted that in the preliminary round, the participants sent recorded files of their Quran recitations to the competition’s organizing committee.
Those competing in the category of memorization answered questions raised by the panel of judges online, the cleric added.
The contenders qualifying for the semifinals are from 35 countries including Algeria, India, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Palestine, Russia, Iran, Tanzania, Kenya, the US, Mauritania, Uganda, Albania, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and Croatia, he said.
The final round of the contest, along with four other international Quran competitions, will be held in Iran in April.