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Ramadan

powerdesal

By powerdesal
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powerdesal Newbie

powerdesal

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Dick & Hoddy,

Interesting comments, the religious stricturs of Ramadan do not, as far as I know, apply to children or those adults that are ill or travelling further than 15kms!.

There is of course the practice of partying the night away because muslims cannot eat or drink between sunrise and sunset. This could well affect children who did not go to bed at a reasonable hour. The practice always seems to me to be defeating the 'fasting' spirit which is supposed to be such a major part of Ramadan.

The present system here of Ramadan is in fact somewhat hypercritical, the daily working hours are substantially reduced (for most) to 0800 - 1300 (5 days a week), the shops and restaurants stay open until 2 or 3 in the morning (or later) and effectively a large portion of the population effectively swing into night shift living and sleeping during the day. That is not 'fasting' in my book but thats the way it is.

The muslims I really feel sorry for are the labourers who still have to work outside in the hot sun and cannot have anything to drink. That situation gets worse, or will get worse for the next few years as ramadan starts earlier each year by about 15 days, thus in a few years it ill be in the middle of summer when temperatures are 45+ in the shade (assuming you can find shade). I remember some years ago during the last summer ramadan cycle that we had considerable numbers of labourers collapse and there were inevitably some deaths.

On a purely personal note, I too have to work only 25 hours a week for the next 4 weeks. Its tough, but someone has to do it!!!  [:(]

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powerdesal Newbie

powerdesal

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Not even water Dick, the rule strictly is that nothing should pass the lips between sunrise and sunset, and sex isn't allowed either in those hours!!!

The exceptions are for illness and as a result, tomorrow morning there will be large queues at the Govt medical centres - I'm not joking.

Those who cannot fast due to illness or who are travelling are supposed to make up the fasting afterwards. The 15km travel thing is quite ridiculous, people live in Sharjah and work in Dubai which is 26 kms each way, I dont know if anyone has actually pushed their luck with the Police on that one.

Agewise I am not sure, 14 may well be the cut off as its all based on 14th century stuff anyway.

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Mistral Newbie

Mistral

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Most of my pupils start ramadan at around 12/13, but it seems to be a personal choice here. We have a tiredness problem too, both  children who will have partied all night and those who won't be eating anything all day. I have to say that most of them are very impressive, you wouldn't know they are fasting. The main problem is to do with PE lessons, especially swimming (many worry that they might swallow water by accident)
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Hoddy Rookie

Hoddy

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All our Moslem pupils who were aged 11 to 19 observed Ramadan while in school. Some of them came from homes where the rules were more lightly enforced, but we always had a sprinkling of boys who’d been to a madrassa and who felt able to tell the others what they should be doing. They even pressured a colleague not to wear lipstick.

The result was a degree of tiredness, listlessness and short- tempered behaviour which was higher than normal. Even if they fainted they would not allow us to sponge their lips with water.

I thought it was harder for the girls because most of them would menstruate during the course of the month. PE was particularly difficult. It had an impact on the school dining room too because the take up of school dinners was down by about a third

Hoddy
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Deimos Newbie

Deimos

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I remember when I was a student doing holiday work in a factory in the Netherlands, Ramadan was a real "pain". As there were quite a few Muslim workers there, when we arrived for the night shift, we worked a short time then had to have our first break. We then had to work right through until virtually the end of the shift to get the 2nd break.

The women working there hated it as well as they had to stop work (and thus stop being paid) for the duration.

Ian
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