Religion & Spirituality

Ramadan: Fasting At School

Ramadan: Fasting At School

So, for me, Ramadan begins this evening and tomorrow for me, will be the first day of fasting. The only time I will not fast this year is during my exams, and when I'm menstruating.

By the way, before I begin telling you about my time at school during Ramadan, I just want to clarify one vast misconception. Many people believe when a girl is menstruating she is not allowed to fast because Muslims believe she is impure. However, that is not true. A girl or woman who is menstruating is exempt from fasting because when menstruating because she is losing fluid and minerals from her body which need to be replaced. When fasting a Muslim cannot drink or eat. If the woman or girl does not drink or eat it could have a bad effect on her health, and health always comes first.

So, that's that misconception cleared up.

Now, on with what fasting is like at school for me.

Every Ramadan my routine kind of changes:

Usually, I wake up at 6:30 am or 7:00 am, in between these times, but in Ramadan, I wake up at 7:30 am or 7:45 am. My school starts at 8:30 am, I live about 5 minutes away from school, so I'm lucky in that sense

The school day is usually the same, except instead of messing around at the table at lunch with my friends, I usually just put my head on the table and fall asleep, then when the teacher blows the whistle it usually wakes me up, if not one of my friends will wake me. I'm a deep sleeper.

When I get home, I usually just go to sleep until about an hour before we are allowed to eat (sunset).

Then we'll eat, and I'll stay up doing my homework, revising and eating until about 1:00 am, then go to bed.

So during Ramadan, my day is kind of backward.

During school in Ramadan, I do get a little tired sometimes, but my friends are good to me and let me sleep in peace at lunchtime if I need to. Though one time they were playing that game where they shove the bottle to each other around the table, they were apparently doing it really violently too, and it hit me in the head, it didn't mean to one of my friends just can't aim to save her life, but it didn't affect me at all, I woke up at the whistle blow, and they told me in class.

I can focus on schoolwork still, which is good.

At school, I always get asked the same questions every year.

"Can't you even drink water?" No.

"Are you fasting?"

"When can you eat?"

"How do you do it?"

Sometimes when you haven't eaten or drank and you keep getting asked the same questions it can get a little annoying, and sometimes I do just want to snap and scream, but you have to control your emotions, Ramadan, you aren't supposed to get angry or upset anyone, so I just sigh and answer their questions, I'm good at keeping my emotions in check. But it is nice that they're curious about it.

I mean, fasting is also a good way to bond with other Muslim children, you can talk about what you ate last night, and what you can't wait to eat at sunset. We can even relate to Muslim teachers.

And in my school, the non-Muslim children and teachers are so respectful towards us. Some years, some of the non-Muslim children even decided to try and fast with us for a day just to see what we go through which was really nice.

One thing which is awkward for me as a Muslim girl: When I'm on my period and I can't fast and they ask why. A lot of the times, people just know why and don't ask, but sometimes people just disregard the fact that I could be on my period and ask why.

Like last year, I was on my period, and one of my guy friends asked me why I wasn't fasting, luckily a friend saved me and told him I was ill because it's just awkward to say I'm on my period. But then another one of my friends just burst out in a rage and said: "I don't understand why people just can't say 'I'm on my period!'" Then he was like: "Well, I didn't need to know that!"

Then I got my period again two weeks later, and my friends saw I wasn't fasting and they were like: "Oh my- you're on your period again! It's been like 2 weeks!" and yeah, that was awkward, but oh well.

So if you're a girl, and you're not fasting the other kids will know you're on your period- or think that.

But sometimes, I do get a lot of energy whilst I'm fasting and I can't explain it. I haven't eaten or drank anything and I'll still be running around in PE and carrying my really heavy school bag.

Last year, we were raising money for charity and we had to wash teachers' cars, this happened to be during Ramadan and I had so much energy. I was washing the wheels, running around, running away from my friends who threatened to throw a sponge at me, and chasing them with my wet sponge, I was sent once to get a bucket of water, I spilled about half of it but still I managed to carry it all the way back to the car we were washing. It was like an upper and lower body workout basically all day.

At the end of the day, we had to wash this really disgusting car, it had bird poo on it and this crusty brown stuff, and it had moss growing out of it, it was the most disgusting car I had ever seen. And none of us knew who the teacher was. We still don't have a clue who they are. One day they'll probably do an assembly or something and they'll be six of us who run out crying. It was a traumatising experience.

I was so tired by the end of it though, my feet were hurting on the way home from school and when I got home I just threw my bag on the floor headed upstairs, got changed into my pajamas and went to sleep.

Even people say to me and other Muslim kids who are fasting: "I don't understand how you have so much energy even though you haven't had anything to eat or drink for x amount of hours." Well, they don't say x amount of hours but x is just a substitution for how many hours we haven't eaten.

So, some days it can be a lot, other days it's a walk in the park. None the less I get it done, and many other Muslim people do as well, and once we're allowed to eat, have that evening meal, and that first cup of tea, it's so rewarding and it feels so good.

The most difficult parts aren't the no eating for me, it's the no drinking because I'm always used to having a cup of tea throughout the day, no swearing, and no listening to music considering that's my number one time killer.

Still, I'm glad we have Ramadan because it gives me a strong sense of discipline and makes me a stronger person.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this read, if you have any questions I will do my best to answer them, as for me fasting this year, I will keep the ones which aren't during my exams because my parents have recommended I don't fast during exams because exams are already stressful enough.

:)

Ramadan: Fasting At School
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