President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has passed a national reading law which, over the next ten years, hopes to introduce reading as a lifestyle choice and lead the way to a brighter future.
As MyKotori reports, the law will allow government employees time to read at work, though the subject matter must relate to personal or professional development in order to promote life long learning for all members of the community.
The law will expect coffee shops to have reading material available to all customers and will also see reading material become exempt from taxes for distribution, publishing, and printing. The law also hopes to encourage the building of more public libraries that are easy to use for those with physical impairments or reading disabilities.
In an interview, vice president Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum stated: “Our objective is to make reading a daily habit in our people, where relevant entities will be required to translate this law into reality.” He went on to call the law an “unprecedented cultural and legislative initiative” which “consolidates the cultural image of books in the society. The law takes a key value like reading and turns it into an integrated government project.”
A Nation Archive will be established by the ministry that will preserve reading materials and keep them available for future generations. It is worth noting that any books without an ISBN rating will not be allowed to be published or distributed. As some have pointed out, this means the UAE government will be in charge of exactly what reading material is read.
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