Children use summer holidays to observe fast

Dubai: Ramadan comes in the summer every 35 years. For most Muslims, it is the most difficult part of the seasonal cycle with often hot and long fasts. For others, however, this is a rare opportunity.

As the Ramadan cycle changes and comes in summer, it starts to fall in the middle of summer holidays. This serves as a unique opportunity for some young Muslims to make their first full-month fast, something their parents would not have allowed them to do had they been going to school.

Nine-year-old Zahra Jethajiwala has tried fasting before, but planned to fast the entire month this Ramadan.

"I can fast the entire month this year because I have a holiday," she said. Having all of Ramadan off, she said, meant that she could make the transition from ‘test-fasting' to going the whole way.

Her mother Farida, from Mumbai, India, said she hopes that Zahra's fasting goes smoothly throughout the month so she can start keeping fast every Ramadan. "So far she has handled it well. She gets hungry and complains when she sees advertisements for food in the newspaper, or when she sees her three-year-old brother eat, but she's managing," said Farida.

"Zahra was the one who suggested fasting the entire month this year," she said.

"She has been asking me for two years, but I didn't let her. This year, because she is off the entire month, I allowed her to fast," she said.

Farida, however, admits that being home the whole day means Zahra needs to find things to distract her from the hunger pangs of the fast. An advantage however is that she can sleep longer hours.

Nine-year-old Hawa, also from India, also took the opportunity to fast the entire month this Ramadan.

Family tradition

Her mother Tasneem said she would not have allowed her daughter to fast the entire month if she was going to school despite her insistence.

"I would have probably let her do some, but not the entire month," she said, adding that it was a tradition in her family to start fasting at age seven. "If all my friends can fast, then I can fast too," said Hawa, stressing that she is capable of fasting even if she has to go to school. For others, this Ramadan marked their first fast.

Sara Jaffer Ali, an Emirati who just turned six, fasted for the first time last week.

Since some of her friends have already started fasting, she said it was important for her to do so too.

For Sara, fasting is about "becoming weak to give food and money to the poor". The first fast, she said, was not as difficult as she expected.

"I was really craving for coco pops and biryani," she said. In the spirit of giving that comes with Ramadan, Sara has donated some of the "hundreds of toys", but like many other children, Sara's incentive to fast did not stop at religion. "I was also promised gifts," she said.