Lgbtq ramadan 2019
Celebrating Ramadan Inclusively
Post submitted by former Editorial Producer, Print and Digital Media Rokia Hassanein
To Urooj Arshad, an openly queer Muslim woman, the holy month of Ramadan is about navigating the intersection of the Muslim and LGBTQ community.
“Ramadan means having collective and being able to celebrate in community with each other and discovery ways to be together as LGBTQ Muslims,” Arshad, an LGBTQ Muslim specialist and the director of international LGBTQ youth health and rights programs at Advocates for Youth, told HRC. “I had to figure out how to connect to LGBTQ Muslim identities in an legitimate way myself… I aspire that what folks would have told me when I was younger is that it is a process and that reconciliation not just around your own sense of who you are in your faith is a drawn-out term process and also reconciliation in your family is a long designation process.”
Ramadan is the ninth and most sacred month on the Islamic calendar. For healthy, able-bodied Muslims, fasting — abstaining from eating, drinking and other activities — from sunrise to sundown is one of the biggest aspects that teaches compassi
Ramadan 2019: ‘A Hour To Reflect On My Progress In Self-Acceptance’
It’s the month of Ramaḍān and, as a Muslim, it means it’s time for me to reflect and re-evaluate. It’s a chance to peek back at years gone by and the progress I have made as a person – and to reflect about the role Islam plays in my life.
As a follower of the Islamic faith, I am encouraged (some might say required) to fast during daylight hours for the 30 days of Ramaḍān. Fasting means going without; going without meal, water and sex from dawn until dusk for 30 consecutive days.
From a very young age, I believed wholeheartedly in the profit of keeping ‘rosay’ (the name we gave to fasting; each individual swift was a ‘rosa’). I started fasting during Ramaḍān in primary school and tried my very best to save as many of them as I possibly could. I lamented those days I failed to keep my rosa with great sorrow and a meaning of disappointment with myself.
‘There Were But A Handful Of Other Muslims In The School’
It wasn’t easy, being at a primary institution in the south of Glasgow where there were but a handful of other Muslims in the school.
I had to watch as my classmates ate at lunchtime and
Muslims and non-Muslims in Australia on sharing the soul of Ramadan
The month of Ramadan begins this evening, with Muslims all around the world fasting from dawn to dusk until May 11.
After spending the previous Ramadan in isolation due to coronavirus restrictions, Muslims in Australia are excited to celebrate the holy month with their loved ones once more.
For some, those connections beyond community and faith.
A month for celebrating each other
Ty Randle, who grew up in a Christian household, is celebrating Ramadan and Eid (the festival that follows the month of Ramadan) this year with his Indonesian Muslim partner, Diaswati (Asti) Mardiasmo.
Mr Randle and Dr Mardiasmo first met in 2008, but reconnected and started dating 10 years later in 2019.
While he still identifies with Christianity, Mr Randle is unlock to celebrating other faiths and cultures.
"I celebrate Ramadhan with Asti and [her daughter] Ariella because it is part of her belief and I am open to new ideas and cultures and recent beliefs," he said.
Dr Mardiasmo, a single mother living in Brisbane, said religion had always been a large part of her life, so it was important that Mr Randle celebr
Melbourne's queer Muslims part fast together during Ramadan
In a friendly, well-lit room tucked away in Melbourne's CBD, the city's queer Muslim community has come together to break fast during Ramadan.
This Iftar — meaning the meal eaten after sunset during Ramadan — has been running for three years to provide a space for Muslims in the LGBTQ community.
As one of the five pillars of Islam, during Ramadan, Muslims are required tofast each day, from dawn until dusk, for around 29 or 30 days, with the Iftar serving to part the day's fast.
It's a meal commonly distributed with family and friends but, for many LGBTQ Muslims living in Australia, Ramadan can be a much lonelier moment of year.
Queer Iftar organiser Abdullah Yahya* fled his house country and became a refugee in Australia to evade criminalisation for creature queer.
Mr Yahya said the people aspect of Ramadan can be "heartbreaking and isolating" for LGBTQ Muslims like himself, who feel ostracised due to their sexuality.
"I was struggling to discover a space for myself during Ramadan,"Mr Yahya said.
"If I’ve gone through something that is isolating and heartbreaking duri
Q&A: Ahmad Danny Ramadan on the unique experiences of LGBTQ refugees
Like the protagonist in his book, The Clothesline Swing, Ahmad Danny Ramadan is a hakawati, a storyteller, at heart. He has listened to countless tales of hardship and love, and has carefully crafted his own novel—and life—around them. From his house in war-torn Damascus to the pride pride in Vancouver, he has dedicated much of his life to making a difference in the LGBTQ-refugee community.
Ramadan is Syrian-Canadian creator, journalist, public speaker and LGBTQ-refugee activist living in Vancouver. He volunteers with the Rainbow Refugee Population, helping to bring LGBTQ-refugees to Canada. His annual fundraiser, “An Evening in Damascus,” has raised over $100, 000 in aid of refugees since 2015. For his efforts, he was the Grand Marshal for the Vancouver Queer Pride Parade in 2016.
The Clothesline Swing, his most recent novel published in May 2017, explores the life of a storyteller and his dying match, dealing with the aftermath of the Arab Spring. With Death lurking in the background, the protagonist shares stories each darkness of his childhood in Damascus, of the homophobia he faced in Syria,