Changing face of Ramadan
Politics and economics cannot help but rear their heads during the Holy Month, reports Karim El-Khashab
Egyptians generally welcome the holy month of Ramadan as a celebration of both faith and family. During the first week, Iftar is usually spent with relatives and the long nights until sunrise out with friends or else at home watching the lavish TV productions that are premiered during the month. Many people of all social levels congregate in mosques until late to pray, and when Ramadan takes its toll towards the end of the fasting month there is always Eid to look forward to.
Ramadan this year, though, arrives when household budgets are already overstretched. The summer holidays are just ending and the new term is beginning just as Ramadan starts. It is an expensive time for families. Little wonder then that the signs of celebration usually associated with the beginning of the holy month are thin on the ground.
With official inflation figures running at 12 per cent -- unofficial estimates are far higher -- people are shying away from buying their usual quantities of traditional sweets.
Mohamed Taha, who has owned a small sweet shop in the Al-Moski district of Cairo for 40 years, says his regular customers are buying noticeably less than in previous years. "People who used to buy 10 kilogrammes of this or that now buy less than half the quantity."
The streets of markets which would normally be buzzing this time of year are filled with people walking with two small bags in their hands, one filled with small amounts of Ramadan sweets and dried fruit, the other with the things kids will need when they go back to school.
The experience of Shawqi Mohamed Othman, an accountant and father of three, is typical. "I can't buy most of the things on offer here anymore so I buy fruit and make drinks out of that instead of qamareddin [dried apricots] and perhaps in a week or two into Ramadan prices will have gone down." He adds that this year he has been forced to work night shifts as a taxi driver just to make ends meet.
It is not just the culinary traditions of Ramadan that are suffering. The Minister of Endowment (Awqaf) recently issued a decision prohibiting people from gathering late into the small hours at mosques. No official reason was given but most suppose that such gatherings, combined with a general feeling of discontent, could be exploited by Islamist groups. Nor has television programming been immune. Once the high spot of the television year, with Ramadan the season in which Egyptian television's glossiest programmes were unveiled, soap operas that attracted tens of millions of viewers nightly, there is, say industry insiders, a sea change taking place.
It is not so much what is being shown, but where and by whom. Two of the most anticipated series this Ramadan deal directly with Egypt but neither will be shown on Egyptian television. Satellite channels owned in the Gulf have bought the rights to both series, which were scripted by Egyptians.
Osama Anwar Okasha, one of Egypt's leading screenwriters, has dominated the Ramadan season for more than a decade, with series that often ran for years and touched upon what it means to be Egyptian. Okasha told Al-Ahram Weekly that he hopes his current project Al-Masrawiya (the Egyptians) will continue for several Ramadans to come. "This is the crowning of my career on the small screen," he says, adding that it saddens him that only some Egyptians will get the chance to watch a series that is "for them and about them".
"To me it is nothing short of a disgrace," he said, arguing that the best Egyptian drama is effectively being taken away from Egyptians. "I know that some people will still be able to watch it, but I write for the poor, those in the rural areas with a black and white TV who only get local channels." This Ramadan, Okasha says, the shift of power towards the Gulf and away from Egypt is unmistakable. "This year we can see how far the balance of power has shifted and what the consequences will be. We have nobody to blame but ourselves. We concentrated on producing cheap laughs to distract the people and now we have lost our position as the manufacturers of ideas and culture."
Naglaa Azzam, a professor of sociology at Cairo University, believes that the run up to Ramadan has exposed the government and strained its relationship with the people. "Never before have I seen this much discontent and disconnection between the government and the people crystallise in one moment." The concerted press campaign reiterating that prices will remain stable during the holy month is, she says, a sign of how grave the situation has become. Azzam, though, dismisses the idea that this might spill over into civil disturbances. Instead, she says, the public will bottle up its frustrations, "and this is perhaps even more dangerous in the long term".
"The state has clearly weakened, it can't reduce prices even if it wants to, and it can't increase incomes to keep pace with inflation, and on top of this it mismanages what few resources it does have."
So does this mean that Egypt's love affair with Ramadan is over? Not quite. Ever resourceful, Egyptian families will somehow find a way to deal with the rising costs of the month, and of sending their children to school, and when the month is over of celebrating Eid Al-Fitr. Ramadan, always an exception, is now the time in which the multitude of challenges Egypt faces throughout the year are squeezed into one month.
Caption: An old man bathing in the glow of traditional fawanees (Ramadan lanterns): this issue of Al-Ahram Weekly kicks off the month with a special Ramadan supplement to mark the occasion
C a p t i o n 2: An old man bathing in the glow of traditional fawanees (Ramadan lanterns): this issue of Al-Ahram Weekly kicks off the month with a special Ramadan supplement to mark the occasion
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/862/fr2.htm