Muslim students away from their family
It’ll be lonely this Ramadan
Door Rawan Altakriti
By Rawan Altakriti
Rawan Altakriti
Farah loves Ramadan. Back home in Egypt, it’s her favourite time of the year. ‘The smell of the delicious dishes, all the family gathered together: the house is just filled with happiness and warmth’, says the exchange student.
In the days before the holy month of fasting and praying starts, she will meet up with friends to assemble parcels of food staples for poor families. ‘We pack important nutritional stuff like rice, sugar, and grains and distribute them’, she says.
Then, when the sun sets on the first day of Ramadan, the whole family will gather around the dining table and break the fast together. After eating, they will pray. ‘Ramadan has its own lights that bring joy and happiness in Egypt’, she says. ‘It’s similar to Christmas in Europe. The streets will be full of lights and lanterns as well.’
Communal thing
It’s also the high season for watching new TV productions. Production companies will present series that go on during the whole month, thirty episodes, one airing each day. Watching those series with families and friends is in itself a communal thing, explains Farah. ‘I like to interact with people and reflect on what I see and participate in the meme trends on social media about each production.’
It feels a bit odd to practise Ramadan here alone
Eid al Fitr – the three days of celebrations at the end of Ramadan – is again an occasion to gather. ‘Old theatre plays are shown on television, family members talk while drinking tea and eating Ramadan sweets. Dessert shops invent new sweets and dishes, competing with each other for their food to become the trend of the month’, Farah says.
But this year, for the first time in her life, she will not be with her family for Ramadan. This year, she has to do it all by herself. While the university accommodates students as much as possible for the Christmas holidays, no arrangements are made for Ramadan. ‘I used to do Ramadan as a communal ritual. It feels a bit odd to practise it here alone’, Farah says.
Seeing the positive
There are many more students like Farah who will have a hard time in the coming weeks. ‘I have many good friends to fast with’, says Mariam, an Egyptian-American international relations student. ‘But after breaking the fast, we pray and go to sleep, because there isn’t much to do.’
This is her first Ramadan alone, but she tries to see the positive. ‘It will give me a chance to be with myself and God’, she explains. ‘Islam is a religion of discipline, of self-improvement and self-reflection, and Ramadan is the perfect time for that.’
I’m awake most of the night and feel sleepy during the day
Farmacy student Widad thinks back fondly to Ramadan in her home country Syria. ‘I can remember the decorations in our house, the street vendors, the atmosphere in the mosques, and the rush in the last hour before Iftar, when everyone tries to reach home to break their fast. I really miss that.’
Doing Ramadan all alone is much harder than doing it together as a community, Farah observes. In Groningen, people don’t fully understand what the month of fasting means to Muslims and Farah can’t really ‘feel’ Ramadan here, she says. ‘The environment isn’t really conducive to my Ramadan practice.’
Some non-Muslim students are curious to learn more about Ramadan, Mariam has found, and when she explains it to them they are often taken aback by the fact that fasting includes not drinking water. ‘I haven’t come across someone who knew nothing at all about Ramadan, but it is always joyful for me to share what it is about.’
Ablution
This year, the breaking of the fast will be around 7 p.m., exactly when Farah has classes. ‘That’s a real concern,’ she says, ‘because I may not be able to do the rituals, like ablution.’
Ablution or alwudu is the ritual purification that requires washing parts of the body in clean water before each prayer. ‘I usually don’t do ablution outside my house. I skip some prayers and do them later when I return home’, Farah explains.
Widad fears the change in her sleeping schedule during Ramadan. Her normal daily routine changes completely these weeks. ‘I’m awake most of the night and feel sleepy during the day. I don’t have the same energy as usual’, she says. She’s also worried about falling behind in some classes, especially the practicals that require more energy. ‘I might skip some lectures or be less focused.’
‘Lessons and exams don’t stop’, says Mariam. She’s a little worried about that. ‘Life continues as normal even during Eid. ‘I will try and ask for days off, so I can celebrate with my family. But I just don’t know if that will be possible.’
Prayers
Prayers are another challenge for her. In Islam, praying five times a day is considered one of the fundamental religious obligations, and prayer becomes even more important while fasting. But mosques in Groningen aren’t very accessible, says Mariam. ‘There is a Turkish mosque, but it is all in Turkish and because of the language barrier it is hard to connect to the community.’
The language barrier at the Turkish mosque makes it hard to connect to the community
The university library has a reflection room which students use for praying sometimes. ‘It’s comfortable and I’m glad that at least there is a place to pray, but when there are men praying in the room, I have to wait until they finish’, she says.
She would really like separate rooms for men and women in the UB, like she has seen in other places on campus. ‘At Zernike, I used the praying room for women and I was amazed that they also provided a small sink for ablution. I didn’t expect that.’
Respect
All three students say they would like to see the university respect their holidays a little more. Take Widad, who wanted to celebrate Eid el Fitr with her family in Amsterdam last year. She didn’t get a pass from her professor. ‘I ended up spending my first day of Eid in class’, she says. ‘The professor was very strict.’
Accommodations are made for Christmas, and Eid al Fitr deserves some space too, Widad feels. ‘At universities of applied education like the Hanze, students can have those days off if they want to.’ Even just the first day of Eid al Fitr off, or a sign welcoming Ramadan would make a difference to students who practise Ramadan, she thinks.
The university boasts an international environment, but that also requires more attention for important global celebrations, the students stress. Especially Ramadan, because it’s an important ritual month where Muslims practise core aspects of their religion. For Farah, it triggers all these feelings of nostalgia and sadness. She sighs: ‘I don’t know if it is worth it to be away from my family and friends this month.’