On not fasting during Ramadan

It is currently the Islamic month of Ramadan. During this month, observant Muslims are required to fulfill the Pillar of fasting. How does it work? Muslims are not allowed to eat or drink during daylight hours (or entertain vices such as smoking, drinking, inappropriate interactions with members of the opposite sex, etc) and are supposed to be more spiritually attuned.

How does the fasting schedule typically work?

Where I live, it typically goes like this:

Don’t eat during the day.

Sleep as much of it as you can.

Wake up in late evening.

Break fast around 730

Keep eating light things until around 10

Sleep?

Dinner around 1

Sleep?

Morning meal (milk and dates, standard) around 4.

Sleep?

Repeat cycle.

Break fast food typically consists of dates, soup, traditional baked sweets and maybe tea (or that might come in between the break fast and the light dinner). Some break fasts can then also include more standard dinner fare. This week at a break fast I had one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten in my site. It consisted of a whole baked fish cooked on a bed of onions, potatoes, bell peppers and olives. There was also soup, a yogurt/apple/date blended drink (which I couldn’t drink because I’m allergic to raw apples), a juice of blended carrots and oranges, cooooold water (I don’t have a refrigerator), sweets, and traditional sort of bread I hadn’t had before which reminded me of Ethiopian Injara, but it wasn’t tangy, was kind of sweet, was much thicker, and was really greasy. But the same texture. It was amazing.

Some people ask me if I am fasting. I say no, or not yet. So far I have accidentally almost fasted but gave way at some point to brunch or lunch. The way I see it, there is no need to lie about eating. I am considerate enough to not do it in front of people but no good can come of me claiming to do something which I am not.

I don’t feel the need to fast. Not because I’m lazy and not because I don’t respect my community. Many volunteers do fast and I have asked them why. Most express curiosity in “knowing what it’s like” or want to show their solidarity. I am not that kind of curious. I know what fasting is like, and typically for periods longer than 15 hours. (Well, actually maybe I am lazy. I don’t want to wake up before the dawn and then try to go back to sleep.) But the main reason I don’t fast is because I don’t think solidarity is actually accomplished in not eating. And, if I did fast, I don’t think I would feel any closer to my community.

Tisha b’Av fell during camp and I fasted the 25 hours. Fauve asked me if I minded if she ate around me. I said no. Because I didn’t. I didn't feel it was her responsibility to hide or alter her eating habits because I was mourning. But maybe that's just me(?).

The way I see it, the not eating doesn’t bring people closer together. Especially not eating to just be not eating and without the like religiosity behind the action. Eating together, acts of communion, those are things that can really be experienced and bring communities together. I have broken fast every night of Ramadan with someone in the community and it’s been lovely.

One of the police thinks that I should fast, at least one day “to know what it’s like” but really—I do know religious fasts, without food AND drink, during the summer, and perhaps I’m stubborn but I don’t see how my private, personal, discrete actions should have any impact on him. But, maybe one of these days I will. Just so I can say yes for once and since I have been asked, kind of. I have not been asked to fast the entire month, and if I had I don’t think I would have given it this much thought—I definitely would not have. If I decide to fast I’ll let you know if I have any profound spiritual enlightenment that prove the sentiments I hold now to be false.