The Islamic month of Ramadan began on June 28, 2014 and is a month of fasting and spiritual discipline for all Muslims. (Actually, to be a Muslim one has to comply with the 5 pillars of Islam, and Ramadan is one of those 5 pillars, so that tells you how important it is.) During the daylight hours of Ramadan, a Muslim is required to abstain totally from food, drink (even water), tobacco and sensual pleasures. So for an entire month, Muslims wake up before dawn (around 4 am right now), eat a large breakfast and then fast all day until sunset. At sunset there are usually large dinner banquets and large celebrations, which is called iftar (iftar actually just means breakfast in Arabic, but during Ramadan it represents the break-the-fast feast). Since everyone is staying up late at night and hungry during the day, the working day is shortened for Muslims during Ramadan -- most work from 7 am to 2 pm and then go home and sleep until iftar.
Because people are working shortened days, the open hours for just about everything is screwed up during this month. I went to the mall last week to find a pharmacy and the only two stores that were open during the day were the pharmacy and the grocery store. So I guess even if you wanted to shop instead of eat, you're shit out of luck.
I was familiar with the rules regarding Ramadan before I moved here, but I didn't fully appreciate the impact Ramadan would have on me. Despite the fact that only around 50% of the population here is Omani and despite the fact that many of those Omanis don't fast due to age, sickness or menstruation*, it is forbidden for anyone, including non-Muslims, to eat, drink, or smoke in public during the day. As a result, restaurants and coffee shops are closed during the day, so we can't so much as buy a cup of coffee during the day, much less lunch. We are also advised to wear more-conservative-than-normal clothes and no perfume, since Muslims are trying to abstain from sensual thoughts and we don't want to make it more difficult for them. The entire country is also dry during Ramadan (except for some hotels), so many of the restaurants that ordinarily would serve alcohol just shut down for the month of Ramadan. It also means you can't do things like drink a bottle of water in your car or chew gum in public -- or risk a ticket from the police if you do.
And from a safety perspective, you've got a bunch of really hungry people driving crazier than normal. The American Embassy and my company actually warned us not to be on the roads from 1:30-2:30 pm (when Omanis are going home for the day) or from 6-7:30 pm (when Omanis are racing to get to their iftars) because the driving is so terrible. And as terrible as the driving here is on a normal basis, it's definitely worse during Ramadan and I'd love to see some statistics on how many more accidents there are this month than normal.
Most expats, especially the spouses of people working here, leave for the entire month of Ramadan. Socializing pretty much grinds to a halt during this month and no one wants to risk getting a ticket for being forgetful and chewing a piece of gum. I can only imagine the impact this has on small business owners of stores or restaurants -- you'd pretty much lose all business for one month, or only have business at night.
For the most part, I don't mind it. I rarely go out to lunch and I have my own office, so I've continued to eat and drink at my desk (I think my Omani coworkers in my department just figure that they enter my office at their own risk), though the biggest problem is that people keep scheduling meetings during lunch. I'm also not much of a drinker, so, other than a lot of restaurants being closed, I've barely noticed that the country is dry. And since all the Omanis leave the office around 2, it's really nice and quiet in the afternoons here, which leaves me free to work on my Rosetta Stone Arabic lessons.
Last weekend the restrictions were really noticeable since I had a friend from the US in town. I figured that we would eat lunch at home each day, but as an avid coffee drinker, my friend was pretty devastated that he couldn't get his Starbucks until sundown each day. It was also awkward since we went on a day trip to Wadi Shab, which required us to pack a lunch and drink plenty of water while hiking. During the hike we only saw expats, so we drank our water without concern. But after the hike we were starving and dehydrated, so we had a picnic in the car even though there were a number of Omanis nearby. I was too hungry/exhausted to care about getting a ticket, plus I figured that they were choosing to hang out in an area where they knew they'd be seeing expats in bathing suits or expats eating in cars, so they had to accept some amount of risk (I don't think my legal arguments about accepting risk would work over here, but it's still how my mind works).
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| This is one of the goat friends we made at Wadi Shab. We gave them our banana peels and other food debris, so we had quite the pack of goats surrounding us. |
And finally, a terrible-quality picture of one of our spectacular mosques lit up at night (it's really hard to take decent pictures while stopped at a light!).
* During menstruation a woman is deemed as "unclean", so therefore can't participate in holy fasting. As I understand it, a woman doesn't fast during her period but then must make up that period of time afterwards (i.e., keep fasting for a few days after Ramadan).
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