Dubai and Iraq, worlds apart in Ramadan

As the holy month of fasting and feasting moves into its third week, Ramadan has become a reflection of the lifestyle of different peoples and political climates across the Arab region. In Dubai entrepreneurs have made a lucrative business out of the holy month while across the desert in Iraq the challenge of fasting from sun-up to sun-down has inspired children to strive to observe a practice usually reserved for adults.

Whereas observance in Dubai seems to revolve around the evening feast of iftar and the morning breakfast suhoor, in Iraq observance appears to focus on fasting as test of endurance and faith for Islam’s youngest adherents.

In the United Arab Emirate of Dubai, restaurant and hotel owners are in hot competition to attract a top-notch clientele to "tents" that have proved a hit in the bustling Gulf emirate.

"Dubai has over the years become one of the most cosmopolitan places and I have an international clientele," said Rami Shehada, who runs one of around 35 Ramadan tents strewn across the city state.

For Shehada and other restaurant managers, it is perfectly normal that the holy month should be yet another occasion to make money in a city driven by a business ethos and basking in ostentatious luxury.

"Ramadan sets the right atmosphere for our business and we take advantage of it…I sometimes have to turn down clients, especially over the weekend," said Shehada, boasting that his tent, sponsored by a property developer, is "the most elegant in town."

With music blaring out of flat television screens, his customers relax on spotless white couches in the air-conditioned tent festooned with plants.

Shehada's tent, set up in a park surrounded by brand new buildings, can accommodate up to 600 people for the sundown fast-breaking meal called "iftar."

Customers pick and choose from an Oriental buffet , for around 100 dirhams (27 dollars, 19 euros) per head and spend the evening with family and friends puffing on hubbly-bubblies known as "shisha".

The ambiance is similar at an even more luxurious tent in a nearby five-star hotel. There, the tent has been erected around a swimming pool surrounded by some of the skyscrapers that have mushroomed in Dubai over the past few years.

Tents set up aboard cruise ships charge as much as 600 dirhams (163 dollars) per person, providing a stark contrast with free iftar meals offered by religious associations, philanthropists and big firms in the city streets and around mosques.

A handful of dates, a plate of rice with meat or chicken and juice make up the menu of the charity iftars.


"Business is better this year despite the rise in the price of foodstuffs," Hamad Mohammad Hareb, an Emirati owner of a restaurant chain said, attributing the success of Ramadan tents to the fact that "Dubai keeps attracting people, meaning potential customers."

Hareb was more worried by competition than by the possible impact of the global financial crisis.

Iraqi 'heroes' taste fasting

Meanwhile, in war-torn Iraq, children, who are not obliged to fast until they reach puberty, join the adults in fasting and are seen as young heroes.

Iraq's increasingly conservative society is seeing more children refrain from food during the daylight hours and thus earn the respect of their parents and peers.

Four-year-old Ahmed Mohammed said he was still asleep when his parents began Ramadan fasting this time, but when he woke up he told his mother that he too wanted to behave like a man.

"I refused to eat. I felt hungry and very, very thirsty at first, but I didn't eat or drink till iftar," Ahmed said.

To his family, young Ahmed is already a shining example.

"My parents and grandmother said I am a hero because I completed fasting on the first day of Ramadan," he said.

His mother, Amna, 25, said the boy is too young to go without food for more than 12 hours, but he is making a great sacrifice and she is proud of his will power.

"I didn't force him to fast because I know he is still a child and can't go without food or water," she said.

She recalled how the boy began to cry because he was so thirsty, but he still refused water.

"Deer fasting"

Many Iraqi parents try out what is known as "deer fasting", probably based on a belief that deer eat less during the summer, to get youngsters to go without food for shorter periods in preparation for full-blown fasting.

Ahmed's six-year-old sister Rand is on a deer fast.

"My mother and grandmother taught me this," the slim girl said while hastily adding that she felt like having an ice cream in the burning hot weather in Baghdad, where temperatures can still soar to around 40 degrees Celsius.

Most parts of the city of six million people have electricity supplies for only a few hours a day, making the heat difficult to bear even for the toughest adults.

Sheikh Ali Bashir al-Najafi, a religious leader, said clerics encourage children to be weaned on fasting.

"Fasting tames the mind," he said, adding that Ramadan drills a sense of discipline into young children.

One of the five pillars of lslam requires Muslims to fast during the ninth month of the lunar calendar. However, certain people are exempt from fasting such as those who are mentally insane, have a chronic illness or any kind of illness, pregnant or nursing women as well as women who are menstruating.