In her blog, Yathrip honors the quiet, daily acts of care that mothers provide—especially during Ramadan, when fasting requires both spiritual focus and physical endurance. It celebrates the love, labor and cultural preservation expressed through food, and uplifts the everyday leadership of women on International Women’s Day.
The Unseen Work Behind Every Iftar
Please note: This story includes a stock image for illustrative purposes only.
During the month of Ramadan, our home has a different feel.
I spend the day at work exhausted, counting down the hours until sunset. Very rarely does it occur to me that my mom is fasting too while also making sure that our family has a full iftar—a meal taken at sundown to break the daily fast during Ramadan—waiting when we return home.
My mom is quite literally the reason my family members go to work each day without worrying about what we’ll be having for iftar or how we’ll pull it together after a long day of fasting.
She fasts all day too. By the afternoon, I know her energy is low, just like mine, and yet when I come home from work, iftar is still ready. Every day, she makes sure the dates and water are set out for Maghrib, the sunset prayer that signals we can finally break our fast. The soup is warm, the balela (chickpeas) is ready and after we pray, there is a full meal waiting for us at the table. My sister joins us each evening and extra portions are packed for my brother-in-law before he leaves on the truck again, and for my brother when he heads back home. No one leaves empty-handed.
When I was younger, I never thought of how much work it takes to do this for thirty days. I never wondered whether she felt too tired, or whether there were days she wished her own mother were still here to prepare iftar for her.
Food as Love, Memory and Culture
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to see the labor, love and care behind it. I see the way she prepares extra, knowing someone will need to take food on the road. Each time we sit at the table to break our fasts, I think about the quiet way she holds our family together during a month that is spiritually significant and requires physical discipline.
Recently, I finished Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner—a memoir about Zauner’s connection to her mother through food. Finishing the book right before Ramadan has made me pay closer attention to my mom during this month.
It’s made me truly appreciate how food is more than just nourishment. It’s love and taking responsibility for others. It’s how so many women across the globe sustain their families, communities and preserve their cultures, oftentimes without recognition.
On International Women’s Day, I don’t want to just celebrate large milestones and achievements, but the simple and quiet acts of care, leadership and generosity that happen in everyday homes like my own. I want to celebrate my own mother who fasts all day and still makes sure that everyone else in my family is fed. She may never make headlines, but the work my mom does reminds me that supporting women and girls means valuing the care, leadership and dedication that they show in their homes, communities and around the world.
Yathrip Abdelgadir is a CWS Community Organizer.