Walk-A-Tif: Lonely Ramadan in Thailand [16th April 2021]

From cancelled Iftar feasts to suspended mosque prayers and COVID-19 cases spreading in 50 provinces or more, almost all Muslims across Thailand are bracing for a bleak fasting month of Ramadan, as the threat of the pandemic lingers.

Restrictions were announced by the Sheikhul Islam Office of Thailand on April 12th, 2021, one day before the start of Ramadan this year.

Ramadan is a period for both self-reflection and socializing. Believers fast from dawn to dusk and then gather around, as a family or as a community, to feast each evening of Islam’s holiest month, which ends with the Eid al-Fitr festival.

This year, as last year, however, the spreading novel coronavirusstill threatens to affect Ramadan, with restrictive measures in place across the country.