EGYPT'S First Lady Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak has launched the "Reading for All" programme for this year, which has become an annual event since the early eighties that aims initially to encourage students at schools and universities to read. This year's festival, which is being held under the theme of ‘Reading is a Right for All', would be expanded in scope and audience, Mrs. Mubarak told a committee meeting Wednesday night. Addressing the Higher Reading for All Committee members, Mrs. Mubarak said that this year's festival would target all Egyptian children and youth of different age groups and socio-economic backgrounds. Mrs. Mubarak said that the event, which had been underway for 20 years, had been re-printing popular books at economic prices to encourage all individuals to read. She said that the festival aimed to make reading accessible for all individuals and encourage the nation's children and youth to make better use of public libraries. Mrs. Mubarak has called on the Committee members to begin digitising popular titles in order to make them freely available online in the near future. She said that the festival's mission was to make information available to everyone now that access to the Internet is easy in Egypt.
