friend recently joined an organisation where she happened to be the only Muslim. Due to her health condition she could not observe fast this year. At lunch time, when she requested the office boy to bring her something to eat, he said all restaurants and cafés were shut in Ramazan during daytime. They’d open around 4pm, close to iftar.

This meant that she was in the same boat as her Christian colleagues who could not order anything for lunch due to the Ehtaram-i-Ramazan Ordinance. This was the first time my Muslim friend felt the impact.

Just before Ramazan commenced, Lent — the holy season of fasting for Christians — had also begun. It concluded only recently. Those who wanted to fast, did so silently. How many of us knew about it? Did we help them in any way, or did we avoid eating in front of them while they fasted? We didn’t.

The Ehtaram-i-Ramazan law tells people not to consume food or water in public places. People can be fined and/ or put in jail for violating the ban. The law has been in force for many years now. As if it wasn’t enough, amendments made by the Senate’s Standing Committee on Religious Affairs in 2017 made it stricter. Do we remember Gokal Das, the old Hindu man who was brutally beaten up by a policeman in 2016 for eating a little before iftar time, in interior Sindh? Although the incident was widely condemned, it created a general sense of fear.

Do we remember Gokal Das, the old Hindu man who was brutally beaten up by a policeman in 2016 for eating a little before iftar time, in interior Sindh? Although the incident was widely condemned, it created a sense of fear among the people in general. 

Today when asked if one is fasting, many people prefer lying. Sometimes women become a butt of jokes when they can’t fast throughout the month, because of their physical condition. Why do we make things difficult for everyone we find not fasting?

In a Facebook group, a lady shared recently how her 4-year-old daughter refused to carry lunch or water to school as she did not want other children to feel bad. Many ladies praised the child and her mother for raising a true Muslim. In my view, you can have food and water as long as you are careful that you don’t do it in front of those who’re fasting.

In the US or Europe, the food shops do not shut down during Ramazan, so what do the Muslims do? Ramazan is about exercising self-control and empathy. Closing down food shops is nothing but imposing an inconvenience on others. Otherwise, the government should apply it for every religious occasion. If we want to progress as a society we need to be equally respectful to all religions and accept the fact that Pakistan has people belonging to a variety of beliefs. We cannot ignore non-Muslims or have rules that don’t apply indiscriminately.

The writer is a freelance   journalist