Sahar Mahayni was forced to leave Syria in 2012 and now lives with her son and husband in Irvine, California. While she stresses how fortunate she feels, she writes “like many other Syrian families, the war has separated us by oceans and continents. One of my sons lives with his wife and three children in the United Arab Emirates, another with his wife and two children in Turkey.”
In this essay for Refinery29, Ms. Mahayni remembers Ramadan in Damascus. “As the sun set, people would rush home to prepare for iftar, or the breaking of their fasts. One by one, kitchen lights would start to flicker through the windows, and the smell of the nightly feast would fill the air. There would always be a knock at the door from a neighbor eager to share their most delicious homemade dish. Then suddenly, the streets would fall silent. The call to prayer would ring out from hundreds of minarets across the ancient city, the same way it has for more than a thousand years, inviting people to once again eat, drink, and pray.”
