Book fair delayed again as minister cites missing private-sector partner

‘Starving minds while feeding stomachs’ was how MP Eman Shuwaiter described the repeated postponement of Bahrain’s International Book Fair in Parliament on Tuesday, after the event was delayed again following an October 2025 announcement.

The fair was last held in 2018. Shuwaiter told MPs that plans were announced year after year, only for the date to be pushed back again before it began. ‘Each year, a plan is announced to hold the book fair and we feel hopeful, then we are surprised a few months later, before the launch date, by news of its postponement,’ she said.

She pointed to the lifting of Covid restrictions on 28 March 2022 and said no international book fair had been organised since then, despite Bahrain continuing to host other exhibitions. ‘This raises legitimate questions about how serious the government is about caring for the book fair,’ Shuwaiter said.

Information Minister Ramzan Al Nuaimi told Parliament the issue mattered because culture and literature fall within the remit of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities. ‘The question, at its core, is important, because caring about the cultural and literary movement in the Kingdom of Bahrain is at the heart of the mandate of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities and its ongoing work,’ he said.

Al Nuaimi rejected the suggestion that the Authority had neglected book events, saying it had licensed more than 14 book fairs. On the International Book Fair, he said preparations had paused at the search for a private-sector partner to help cover costs. ‘The matter has stalled at the search for a private-sector partner to come in with us as an investor or share part of the large cost of hosting a very large number of participants,’ he said.

Shuwaiter questioned why the newer Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre in Sakhir, which opened in November 2022, could not host the fair, and said the reply did not provide a clear explanation for the repeated delays. Al Nuaimi said the Authority planned to set a date once the procedures to secure a sponsor and partner were completed, while arguing that Bahrain’s cultural programme continued through the year, including support for Bahraini arts, song and poetry.