As the holy month of Ramadan begins this week, Muslims in Cairo have been adorning their homes with lights and decorations featuring arabesque patterns. Lanterns called fawanees, like the ones I saw being sold in this shop in old Cairo, have become a symbol of Ramadan and are an almost-mandatory home decoration for the month in Egypt. This street and the nearby neighborhood of al-Darb al-Ahmar bustle with shoppers getting ready for the holiday.
The Premier League and English Football League will resume their procedures for Ramadan, with matches pausing briefly to allow Muslim players to break their fast. Ramadan starts this week and will last for a month. During the this time, Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn until sunset. With sunset in the UK ranging from about 17:00 to 19:00 GMT during this period, the only games that could see a break in play will be Saturday's 17:30 kick-off and Sunday's 16:30 kick-off.
We were expecting to see houses and buildings dot the shore, as well as the hawkers who'd typically crowd around piers in Indonesia with food and wares to sell. There was none of that. It was just a pier next to a tiny village. After disembarking, we set off walking and within 100 metres ran out of houses, surrounded only by rice paddies and farmland. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go, and not even a tree to seek shade under.
"There's definitely been a lot of fear and a lot of discrimination. We know the stereotypes against us and they're just amplified now." - Bismah Jaffer, CAIR-SFBA Civil Rights Attorney
