FOR 30 DAYS EACH YEAR, Muslims all over the world fast from dawn to dusk. Although the physical experience of fasting may be the same for all, different communities have specific Ramadan traditions influenced by their culture and surroundings. Depending on the significance Islam plays in one’s country and its history, or even one’s family, the Holy Month is celebrated differently from person to person and place to place. We spoke with people from the major regions of the globe to get a small, yet personal, glimpse into how Ramadan is observed all around the world.

For Tanveer Islam, 22, Ramadan in Pakistan doesn’t hold a candle to the nation’s obsession: cricket. “After tarawih prayers, my friends and I stay up every single night til’ Sehri [what Subcontinentals call sohour], playing the game. It’s practically a ritual.”

Getting some exercise is probably not such a bad thing, what with most Ramadan specialties such as pakora and samosa falling in the heavily fried, oily department.

Muslims are spread across the Subcontinent, from Pakistan to India to Bangladesh and even the tiny island of the Maldives. When Islam first came to the region, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were all one ‘country,’ which explains why India, a mostly-Hindu country, has roughly the same number of Muslims as Pakistan does. Today, India boasts about 170 million Muslims, making it the second-largest concentration of Muslims in the world, while Pakistan and Bangladesh, both predominantly Muslim, have nearly as sizable populations. Pakistan, home to several sects of Islam living in varied geographical regions, experiences inconsistencies when it comes to Ramadan. “People up and down the country celebrate Ramadan on totally different days,” says Aiysha Bakhtier, 27, a Karachite. “Whereas the moon is so clearly visible in the North Western Frontier Province, the urbanites tend to start later than them because we can’t see the moon until about two days later.” Bakhtier ruefully admits that this is poor performance on the part of Pakistanis when it comes to being united during the Holy Month.

On the other side of the region, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nabilah Khan, 23, paints a different picture of the first day of Ramadan: “The first day, when the moon can be seen, is special for people here, and fireworks and people’s shouts of excitement can be heard from nearby areas.” Sehri is an elaborate affair in the Khan household, “While most people have special food for iftar, my mother has made a habit of making good food during sehri instead of iftar to entice us to wake up and eat at that hour.”

Associated Press A Malaysian Muslim woman picks up her child from school on a bike. Malaysia is home to a majority population of Muslims.

For a country divided by huge economic disparities, Khan feels Ramadan brings one especially wonderful thing to the country: “During iftar, the class divisions that are so prominent in our country cannot be seen because everyone buys their iftars from the same place. The beggars on the streets, who do not know where their next meal is going to come from most of the time, also fast. This equity among people is not noticed at any other time of the year.” (FA)

When you look at a map of the world shaded according to its population of Muslims, the area stretching from Mexico to the tip of South America tends to be the most poorly represented. In fact, in our quest for Muslims living in the region, all we came across were immigrants and converts. In a region known for sensuality, salsa dancing, pork-heavy cuisine and a general air of hedonism, the modest values of Islam have little fertile ground to take root.

According to Teresa Aragon Robles, a 20-year-old from Cosala, Sinaloa, Mexico, who has been practicing Islam for two and a half years, it is very likely that many a Mexican spends his or her lifetime without meeting a single Muslim. Although there is a fairly established Muslim community in Chiapas and mosques in Mazatlan, Sinaloa and Mexico City, the national population of Muslims barely numbers 300,000. Across Latin and South America, each country has less than one percent of Muslims.

In a predominantly Catholic country such as Mexico, life for converts can be especially testing during Ramadan. “Since I was not openly Muslim in my college community, it was difficult to try to explain to people why I couldn’t eat,” she says. “My friends would offer me food and drink during the day, but I would have to decline their offer. Sometimes they made fun of me by suggesting I was on a starvation diet, but I ignored their comments.”

Mohsen Allam Olga Aliya Gora, a British convert, has a lot to smile about during Ramadan despite the challenges she faces.

The culture and cuisine itself doesn’t help. “It is often very difficult to explain why I don’t eat pork. Pork is a great part of the culinary culture of Mexico and it is sometimes an offense to decline to eat what is being offered since many times that is the only thing there is to eat for the day.”

Despite this, Hamza Martinez, a 29-year-old convert from Mexico City, does not in any way feel cheated of a genuine Ramadan experience. “Arabs and South Asians in America always complain that Ramadan in America is terrible because there is no ‘Ramadan feeling’ — no lights on the streets or special foods, etc. But all that is nonsense. That’s not what Ramadan is about. Ramadan is about prayer, and inward reflection and the Qur’an. Everything else is just a commercial distraction.

“I thank God for allowing me to live my first Ramadans in Mexico where to everyone else it was just a normal day and to me I had to work to make it special and beautiful. All the Muslims [I knew] (around 15) would get together to pray the Eid prayer and then go out to breakfast at some coffee shop.

“And I think basically this is the secret of being Muslim and fasting in Ramadan in Mexico. We won’t have lights on houses and government buildings and there won’t be a huge family iftar and ayaat Qur’aniyya from the loudspeakers of mosques, so little things like praying maghreb prayer together or finding imported dates in the supermarket mean a lot to us.” (FA)

Most people born into Muslim families probably take a few aspects of Ramadan for granted. This is a point Olga Aliya Gora, 24, cannot stress enough. Gora, an English girl of Polish descent, converted to Islam at the young age of 17; she says the Holy Month presents some difficulties when your family is not Muslim.

“Within the family, which is where it counts, fasting is an extremely strong symbol of your dedication to your faith. For a lot of Muslims around the world, fasting is just a matter of course, they may not even be that dedicated. But to a non-Muslim, the fact that you are starving yourself from dawn to dusk is an extreme act of worship. That’s what can really niggle people, especially when it comes to parents.

“Most parents, and especially mothers, want their kids well fed. So when you’re at home with your mum and she asks if you want breakfast, and you say, ‘No Ma, I’m fasting,’ and ‘Do you want lunch?’ and you say no again — it really rattles cages. For a lot of people like me, the month of Ramadan can be a really difficult month — not from the food side, but from trying to avoid arguments because you’re not having any food.”

Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean Gora is entirely alone. There are nearly 1.6 million Muslims in the United Kingdom, making up 2.8 percent of the country. The UK has witnessed a surge in conversions to Islam, with several prominent celebrity converts in its midst, including Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), and Yvonne Ridley, the tabloid journalist made famous when she was kidnapped by the Taliban.

Islam isn’t common only in the UK — Western Europe has been acquainted with the faith since the Ummayads conquered Al-Andalus in Spain in the seventh century, establishing a Muslim majority in the region within 300 years. Although the influence of Islam spread throughout Western Europe (read: Enlightenment), the conquerors never made it physically past the south of France.

Within the last century, immigration from ex-colonies has meant Islam has entered the region with a very different face: Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Turkish, Arab and African communities are firmly ensconced in many European countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. World events and a general better understanding of the faith have also led to a surge in conversions — Islam is officially the fastest-growing religion in most of Western Europe.

This Ramadan, Gora plans to keep her chin up by focusing on what she feels is most important about the Holy Month, “I know there is a lot of classism and racism in the Muslim world. I used to think there wasn’t when I first accepted Islam, but I came to realize that there is just as much or even more here than in other societies. Nevertheless, in my mind, I know that people of all classes and races are fasting with me, whether it’s a peasant farmer in Indonesia or the King of Saudi Arabia — I hope!” (FA)

The Far East has proven to be a good home for Islam, with Indonesia the largest Muslim country in the world (more than 200 million adherents) and neighboring Malaysia and Brunei are also predominantly Muslim. Looking beyond the Indian Ocean archipelagos, there are communities that have cropped up in Thailand, Singapore and as far as the western part of China.

The Malayan people of Malaysia and Indonesia have followed Islam since as far back as the twelfth century. They are also indigenous to the ultra-cosmopolitan island state of Singapore. Despite the incursion of immigrants from China and the rest of the world, the Malays have preserved their Muslim heritage, something that is especially evident during Ramadan and Eid.

In Singapore, Malay families are known for being big (the Singaporean government, in a desperate attempt to increase its alarmingly declining Chinese population, has in the past urged the community to look toward the Malays for inspiration for planning large families), and at no time is this more appreciated than during Ramadan, or Puasa, as the Malays call it.

“Our family is very large, and only during Ramadan does everyone make extra effort to get together everyday for potluck iftars and prayers,” says 25-year-old Firdaus Ismael. “It is why I look forward to Ramadan the most.”

The Holy Month also usually involves extensive preparation for Eid or Hari Raya Puasa. According to Azira Aziz, 23, a freelance writer, “The house gets a mini makeover — with new curtains, sometimes new colors for some walls and polished flooring, all ready for expected visitors during Eid.”

Singapore’s cosmopolitan nature has encouraged most ethnicities to be relatively well-versed in other religions and cultures. The country has a plethora of halal food establishments catering specifically to the approximately 16 percent of the population that is Muslim. Asked what she eats to break her fast, Aziz replies, “Anything halal! Singapore’s a food paradise, so I’m usually spoiled for choice.”

Farina Yusof, 23, notes, “Most non-Malays are generally aware of the fasting month. Children are taught in schools about Muslims fasting, and on the day Ramadan begins there will be announcements on the local news and in newspapers. Therefore the non-Malays are aware, and seldom question Malays on why they fast. Actually, a Malay who’s not fasting during Ramadan gets more questions on why they don’t.”

The non-Muslims even go as far as to get involved in the festivities. “Non-Muslims add to the color by enjoying the festivities along with us,” Aziz says. “I’m also grateful for the racial and religious tolerance here. People of various races are not left out in the festivities as Singaporean Muslims are willing to be open and to share their customs and traditions with others.”

One Hari Raya Puasa tradition that’s hard to miss: entourages of Malay families walking around in matching clothes. In a practice known as boriah, families tailor outfits in the exact same cloth, color and design, then promenade through the city as a single visual unit, either all navy blue or red or green. (FA)

America is home to Muslim immigrants from at least 68 countries, making it a microcosm of the Muslim world at large. Islam may be one of the fastest-growing religions in America, but until September 11, 2001, the non-Muslim population was largely unconcerned with its presence. However, after the fall of the Twin Towers, the country, fearing more terrorist attacks, immediately began scrutinizing the practices of Islam and the Muslim community.

For Zarinah El-Amin Naeem, it’s this reality that makes it important to reach out to non-Muslim Americans during Ramadan and educate them on the true meaning of Islam.

“Following September 11, Muslims would try to project positive things. So rather than focus on what happened, we focus on the good deeds, and people realized in Ramadan you have to [] try to show how you fast as a part of the beliefs you have,” says the 27-year-old student from Kalamazoo, Michigan, who was raised Muslim.

A 2007 Pew Research Center survey estimates that Muslims are less than one percent of the population, around 2.35 million people. Sixty-five percent of them are foreign born, and of those who are native born, two-thirds are converts.

Troy Alim, 37, an executive at a consulting firm in Illinois, converted to Islam over a decade ago, and changes little about his work life during Ramadan. For Alim, working shorter days is not a necessary concession to make the month tolerable. In his mind, the less fortunate can’t limit the amount of strain or take long breaks, so he doesn’t either. But while he doesn’t change his workday, Alim does take the time to explain to co-workers what he is doing and why.

“At the lunch hour, there is a consciousness — people notice that I’m not eating. When they comment, we talk about it,” he says. “Most Americans are unfamiliar with our practices during Ramadan, but some have heard about it.”

It’s the general public’s obliviousness that defines the Ramadan experience for American Muslims. Gone is the communal bond between you and every other person on the street. Instead, Ramadan becomes an opportunity to have a personal spiritual awakening.

“It’s harder here. In Egypt, everyone is watching you, but in the US, it’s more of an individual thing. Only you can tell if you’ve been eating,” says Naeem. “In Western society it’s an individual thing between you and your lord. No one is going to know if you’ve eaten.”

Ramadan is unlikely to ever be celebrated with the same kind of fanfare as Christmas, but that does not mean American Muslims need keep quiet about the Holy Month.

“[In America,] don’t be afraid to showcase who you are and what you do,” Naeem says. “We have to be the ambassadors of Islam, American society isn’t coming to us, so we have to show them the depth and beauty of Islam.” (MD)

In 1991, Azerbaijan emerged from the Soviet Union meltdown with a relatively stable secular state and a long (though faltering) history of Islamic influence. While much of the older generation remains linked to the country’s atheistic history, the younger generation is gravitating toward Islam in greater numbers. With around 93 percent of its total population considered Muslim, three-fourths of whom are Shia, Azerbaijan has seen a resurgence in religious activity.

“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were different Islamic movements,” says Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, a 25-year-old student. “Most coming from Turkey and Iran are not radical. Azerbaijan is still secular, and most [Azers] have an Islamic background.

“There are many religious movements working especially with young people because it’s really hard to promote Islam to the older generation. They have the Soviet background and they took [the atheism] courses and exam.”

Like most educated Azerbaijanis, Hajiyev’s parents were taught atheism in school. But since the Soviet collapse, many of the educated class are returning to Islam. From what Hajiyev has observed, those of the older generation follow Islam more strictly than the younger generation, but there is a much higher percentage of young people practicing.

Books teaching Islam are widely available and religious programs are broadcast to help interested people learn more about the faith, according to Hajiyev, but he adds that the Soviet mentality lingers among some who are new to practicing Islam, even during Ramadan. While many Muslims in Azerbaijan offer charity and visit with family, some make wayward attempts at fasting.

“There are many funny stories linked with people’s mentality here,” says Maxim Kostenko, who works in business development in Baku. “Some people are waiting for the sun to go down to get back to alcohol and other dirty things [otherwise] prohibited by Islam. I knew some individuals starting iftar with vodka or wine [let Allah forgive them!].”

For many, Islam is more of a cultural identity than a religious distinction. Muslims in Azerbaijan tend to practice traditions of Islam without necessarily upholding the five pillars. “My family is an ordinary Azerbaijani family, so they are not very religious,” says Hajiyev, “so whatever we do is coming from tradition, especially Islamic traditions. They are trying to do something, but not really in a religious way. They aren’t praying all day, but it’s the tradition that you need to help poor people, refugees and people who have needs.”

But Azerbaijanis are creating new Ramadan traditions. While mosques offer the usual charity tables and many eat at relatives’ homes, for middle-class families iftar is often celebrated at restaurants to make the breaking of the fast a more communal experience. “It’s kind of tradition that people go [for iftar] together,” explains Hajiyev. “The reason is after the collapse of Soviet Union, people didn’t have any religious background and now there is a big development in Islam, so people try to do everything in a collective way and not an individual way.” (MD)

For many West African Muslims, the Holy Month is more than religious observance; it is a time to reconnect with the community. While it’s almost misleading to offer just one description of Ramadan to sum up all 16 countries, there seems to be one common thread: socializing.

“Basically, in Ramadan there’s northern Nigeria and southern, and there are two ways of living during Ramadan,” says Ibrahim Indimi, a 26-year-old Nigerian student. “In the North it’s a little like the Arab nations socially. There is a gathering in our friends’ houses every night for the 30 days. We like to rotate, there’s a lot of us every day in one of our friends house just eating and talking and discussing religion and whatnot, so basically it’s the social aspect of it.”

Sindoua Fofana in Côte d’Ivoire, says the most memorable part of the Holy Month celebrations is the ability to gather with friends in his own home, saying any day spent without the company of his friends during Ramadan is “the worst day for [him].”

That said, Indimi notes that not all areas of West Africa celebrate the same way. Countries that are more Westernized, such as Ghana and Liberia, focus less on socializing, similar to the south of Nigeria. et

“The southern part is more like Nigeria mixed with the West,” Indimi says. “There’s nothing to do — people go to work, come home, then stay with their family.”

Indimi, who is living in Cairo, says that during Eid, everyone celebrates similarly to Egypt. “We go pray early in morning and then visit family members. So basically it’s a day where everyone goes and meets their elder ones, we give out gifts to each other,” he says. “The lower class hang out throughout the three days of [Eid], they go to the zoo, go to museums.” (MD) et

Ramadan away from home combines the novelty of new customs and the sadness of missing out on the old ones. Two foreign Muslims share what Ramadan feels like in Omm El-Donia.

Basheer Danjuma, from Nigeria, and Zamarul Zaman Bin Kamal, from Malaysia, have been studying in Cairo for years. Each perceive Ramadan in Egypt as a contrast to their cultures, just in very different ways.

Zaman Bin Kamal, like many of the 7,000 Malaysians in Egypt, is studying at Al-Azhar University. He says that Ramadan allows him to feel more connected with the Egyptian community around him. “It’s special here because this is the Arab world, it has a lot of religious history. Many of the prophets have been here, and you do truly feel the history.

“The society around us [in Malaysia] doesn’t inspire us to celebrate Ramadan like the Egyptian community. In Malaysia, we only really celebrate the feast after Ramadan. During the feast, we gather together and we feel the Ramadan spirit really only on the first of Showel [the month following Ramadan in the Islamic calendar]. Here in Egypt, we feel Ramadan inside Ramadan.”

Danjuma, a recent graduate of Al-Azhar, finds little to be excited about when it comes to Ramadan Cairo-style. He claims that upon arriving in Egypt nine years ago, he was disappointed to find it unlike the ‘Islamic’ state he was expecting.

“In Nigeria, even the Christians show a lot of respect during the month. You don’t see them drinking, the alcohol shops are closed and they even dress more modestly out of respect,” says Danjuma. “Here in Egypt, I find no difference in the streets. The only difference you see is the extra lighting all over the streets — TV, atmosphere, dress — nothing changes here in Egypt.”

He finds the tradition of watching mosalsalat during Ramadan disappointing: “[My Nigerian friends and I] realized that during Ramadan, there are many more movies and mosalsalat, which instead of teaching Islam or Ramadan [they] are broadcasted for fun. They have more of these during Ramadan than any other time of the year!”

But for Zaman Bin Kamal, it’s rituals like these shows that remind him that as an outsider, he is the only one responsible for creating an honest, spiritual Ramadan for himself.

“Most Egyptians live and act out what is tradition for them: If their mother watches Ramadan soaps, they will. But as a [foreigner] here, the other students and I try to think what’s the best way to do Ramadan, how we should celebrate and feel about the month.”