‘Ramadan Effect’ Permeates Everyday Life in Islamic World
By 3 p.m, the race is on.
Millions of frenzied commuters pound their car horns as they creep along packed streets, vying for any open pavement they can find in this sprawling city. Even the afternoon calls to prayer booming from loudspeakers affixed to minarets are drowned out by the din.
These frustrated drivers share a common goal: to get home before 4:55 p.m., the moment decreed by Islamic authorities here as sunset during the holy month of Ramadan.
Such workday exoduses are unlike any in the rest of the year, say residents of the Egyptian capital, where stress is usually consigned to the Almighty with repeated utterances of “Inshallah,” or “God willing.”
Even the Egyptian economy bows to the strain, as production and stock performances drop while imports and foreign exchange rates rise. But then again, it’s Ramadan, when, for Muslims, everything takes a back seat to commemorating what they believe was God’s revelation of their holy book, the Koran, to the prophet Muhammad nearly 1,400 years ago.
The observance, which in most of the Islamic world extends this year from Nov. 27 until Dec. 26, is a time of devotion, of self-reflection, of goodwill toward those less fortunate.
In Egypt, the daytime fasting required by Ramadan is followed by a series of feasts and gatherings with family and friends that lasts through the predawn hours, in a cycle that is repeated for up to 30 days.
Workdays, in turn, are cut short. The Egyptian stock exchange, for example, trimmed its four-hour trading day this year by 1 1/2 hours, and local business writers have repeatedly blamed the move for sluggish trading.
Ramadan “really does change the rhythm of the day noticeably,” said David Shelby, an economic analyst who works for the EFG-Hermes brokerage here.
The Ramadan effect, as some economists have dubbed it, tends to show up in the quarter before the holy month, when imports of oil, food and other items rise in anticipation of increased demand.
This year’s effect was muted somewhat by a struggling Egyptian economy, which Shelby’s fellow analyst Dina Halaby said grew by only 3% to 3.5% in fiscal 2000 despite rosy government pronouncements. (On Dec. 9, the Ministry of Economy put that growth at 6.5%.)
Still, hard times haven’t kept many pious Muslims from taking time off this Ramadan to make an umrah, or pilgrimage, to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Truck driver Mohammed Mahmood, 48, said he spent the equivalent of $513 so that he could accompany daughter Ranya, 23, on her first pilgrimage this year. He spends every last piaster he can save to make such trips, he added.
“We’re not going to take anything else from this world but our devotion to Allah,” Mahmood explained.
This year’s umrah was his fourth, he said, and cost him more than 10 times his monthly income. He’s also twice gone to Saudi Arabia for the hajj, the more elaborate pilgrimage that most Muslims are expected to make at least once.
Economists here estimate that Egyptians will spend $270 million on umrahs this year. And the traveling, which increases demand for foreign currency--especially the Saudi riyal--has led the government to use up much of its foreign currency reserves in an attempt to keep exchange rates from rising, Halaby said.
Islamic teachings say everyday life should be normal during Ramadan, yet in Cairo it is anything but.
“Although the fasting month enjoins people to be more spiritually aware and devote more time to religion, people here prefer filling their stomachs to purifying their souls,” columnist M. Ali Ibrahim complained this month in the English-language Egyptian Gazette.
After sunset, families break their daily fast with the iftar, a lavish meal that includes meats, breads and sweets.
Even those too poor to afford it partake. Throughout the month, at tables and benches set up beneath underpasses, near mosques and outside restaurants, iftar is served free to an estimated 6 million people nationwide, or about 10% of the population.
The celebration doesn’t stop there. After requisite prayers, another round of gatherings gets underway in front of televisions or at local restaurants, keeping Muslims--and even Christians--up each night. Ramadan is a national celebration, Egyptians say, a time that unifies all of their countrymen, regardless of religion.
A final meal, or sohour, is consumed shortly before dawn, when the daytime fast begins anew.
Like Christmas in the West, Ramadan is a celebration that drives up consumer demand unlike any other, Halaby and Shelby agreed.
But unlike the seasonal demand in the West, the increased Egyptian demand for goods during Ramadan is fed mainly by imports. They totaled $17.9 billion in fiscal 2000, which ended in June, compared with $6.4 billion in exports, Halaby said.
Everything from oil and sweets to textiles and the festive lanterns Egyptians hang in the streets comes from other countries, the analysts said.
Although some of the imports are unavoidable, there are Ramadan needs that could be met locally, Shelby said.
For example, the lanterns, or fanous, most of which are made in China, could be a booming industry in Egypt, one that could also be linked to tourism year-round, he said.
The lanterns were first used in Egypt during the Fatimid dynasty 900 years ago.
“Ramadan hasn’t been seen as a marketing tool in Egypt the way Christmas has in the West,” Shelby said. “It’s not a crisis but a missed opportunity.”
There are bright sides to the economy during Ramadan, however.
For one, business at travel agencies booms. Refaat Sakaan, who manages New Baroun Tours in downtown Cairo, said he does the most business at this time of year. His agency books hundreds of umrahs each week, and the demand drives the cost of the journey up 20%, he said.
“Ramadan is the month of the Koran, and we are a religious people,” Sakaan explained as verses from the holy book flashed on his computer’s screen saver.
The government and travel agencies estimate that up to half a million Egyptians will have made the pilgrimage this Ramadan.
Meanwhile, an entrepreneurial spirit is visible every afternoon on Cairo’s streets, where too few traffic officers try in vain to keep cars moving in a city with scarce traffic lights that everyone ignores anyway.
Street vendors saunter up to stopped cars in a steady stream, tempting the homebound with such Ramadan goodies as raisins, nuts and apricot preserves or with small gifts for children.
All the same, most businesspeople are looking forward to this week, when the holy month will end and the Ramadan effect will begin to wear off.
