The difficult preparation for Ramadan in Egypt and Palestine

The month of Ramadan begins Wednesday, March 22 at midnight for Muslims who observe it. For 30 days, healthy people cannot eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. It is the holiest month in the Muslim religion.

In Egypt, preparation for Ramadan marked by inflation

In Egypt, the country with the most Muslims in the Arab world, preparations are usually cheerful. For several weeks now, we have been seeing colorful lanterns in the street, characteristic of this time of year. This is the really visible side of the beginning of the holy month. What we see less at first sight is above all the difficulty of the Egyptians to feed themselves. Over the past year, the Egyptian pound has lost 57% of its value, inflation has exploded to more than 20% and food prices continue to rise. Chicken, for example, the typical dish for breaking the fast, consumed twice as much as in the rest of the year, has doubled in price.

The government, which cannot remain blind to this reality, had an original idea, to say the least. He called on Egyptians to eat chicken feet. They are cheaper and more nutritious. Even here, where any criticism is strongly repressed, the proposal has caused controversy. To the point that the authorities have canceled the advertising campaign around these chicken feet. For the moment, the country’s economic situation does not make it possible to improve daily life. The Egypt of President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi is living on debt, some 150 billion dollars according to the latest figures. Today the Egyptian debt is considered one of the five most at risk in the world.

In Palestine, a Ramadan under high tension because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

In Palestine and Israel, there are fears of violence between communities against a backdrop of security deterioration. Since the beginning of 2023, 86 Palestinians and 13 Israelis have been killed. They are combatants, terrorists and civilians alike. And among the victims are adults and children. We hadn’t seen this since the early 2000s and the second intifada. Israeli and Palestinian officials have met twice, in Jordan and Egypt for US-sponsored talks, to try to calm the situation. The Israeli army has therefore decided to lift certain limits imposed on Palestinian Muslims from the West Bank and Gaza to come and pray in Jerusalem, but on Sunday a far-right Israeli minister declared “there are no Palestinians, because there are no Palestinian people”, causing great anger in the Arab world. During April, like last year, Ramadan will coincide with Passover, Jewish Passover and Christian Easter.