But today, in the parts of Mosul from which the IS group have recently been expelled, the casual observer will see more people than ever before, eating during the day.
Some have genuine physical reasons for this. During the last few months, while the city was under siege from pro-government forces fighting the IS group, some families were only able to eat one meal a day. Others were starving – and they are simply too weak to fast during the day now.
Mosul man Haj Khader al-Hussein is one these. All his life he has fasted, every Ramadan since he was 18, the 70-year-old told NIQASH, because it is one of the most important religious duties. But this month he has not been able to, for the first time.
“The war has had a negative physical and psychological impact,” he explains. “When our neighbourhood was liberated about three weeks ago, friends came to visit me and they barely recognized me. I tried to fast this year too but after five hours, I fainted. I realized it was a bad idea,” he notes, showing a bag of vitamins and supplements he was given after the fainting episode.
There are also other Mosul locals who are not fasting for different reasons. Most of them are younger people who appear to have rebelled against the religious ideal after having been under the control of the extremist group who, they say, claimed to practice Islamic law but in fact, only spread death and injustice.
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