By Zoulikha Rezki
Mentorship Paulo Lima
Last February, Bologna hosted Italy’s largest Iftar Street event. We wanted to narrate it through the voices of the people who were there, conveying the authentic meaning of one of the most deeply rooted traditions of the Muslim community in Italy.
Photos of Hassan de Filippis, CIB volunteer – Comunità Islamica Bologna.
The table, food, eating together, sharing a meal, were always born from material conditions through which a relationship is expressed, in which the genuine meeting with the other emerges, in which friendships and relationships are disseminated and consolidated. It’s on this premise that the idea of Iftar Street is based: a dinner open to the public, centred around the meal that breaks the Ramadan fast (iftar), during the holiest month of the islamic calendar, when Muslims fast from dawn until sunset.
Bologna, for the eighth edition of Italy’s largest iftar street, became the setting of the event. In Piazza Lucio Dalla, dozens of tables, food stalls and activities were set up, welcoming more than seven thousand people, as they do every year. The event’s organisation was possible thanks to several realities coordinated by the CIB, Bologna’s islamic community.
The choice of the space, the square, already says much of what the iftar street aims to be: an event open to the citizens of Bologna and beyond, an encounter between stories and cultures in which differences meet, engage in dialogue and enrich one another. The goal is precisely this: to create an open space for anyone who wants to understand and share, without prejudice, a reality that involves at least two million Muslims in Italy. In an increasingly violent and islamophobic context, events such as the iftar street take the form of a counter-narrative and an act of emancipation from an increasingly aggressive propagandistic instrumentalisation.
An event made possible by volunteers
©Hassan de Filippis, CIB
Several different elements come together to make such a large-scale event possible. At its foundation are certainly the volunteers, who through working groups and training sessions, become able to coordinate themselves into a well-oiled machine. The Youth Press Agency therefore interviewed some of the people who worked behind the scense, and that made the event possible.
What did working at iftar street mean to you?
Yasmin: For me, it meant a moment of sharing and hope for a better future. It looked to me like putting into practice Qur’anic verse: “O mankind, we created you from a man and a woman and we made you into populations and tribes, so that you could get to know each other”.
Rewan: For me, working at Iftar street means personal growth on an interpersonal and social level, because thanks to an event of this scale, I always get to meet wonderful people, and many non-muslim people, curious to find out more about my religion.
Fatima: Working at Iftar Street for me means to transform a moment of sharing into an organized, efficient and dignified system. It’s where responsibility, service and vision come together.
What impact can such an event have for those who participate?
Yasmin: An event of this scale has an enormous impact. It breaks down prejudices, it creates connections and memories that can become a form of resistance against the islamophobic propaganda. It’s not simply a moment of celebration, but also a way of allowing people to genuinely get to know us as Muslims. At a time when war and ignorance prevail, to sit down at a table and to share a meal can be truly revolutionary.
Rewan: Such an event can do nothing but expand the knowledge about our religion that, because of various and tragic historical events, has become a target of hatred and prejudices among those who do not really know it. For sure it will also cause the opposite effect, but it’s fine. Unfortunately, I have seen negative videos that have exploited our event, but that’s okay. In the end, it’s not possible to do good while expecting only positive reactions. And the hate we receive does nothing but make us grow together as a community.
Fatima: Such an event has a deep impact: it creates community, it fights distances and it restores human value to simple gestures. Those who participate receive not only food, but also attention, respect and a sense of belonging.
©Hassan de Filippis, CIB
How would you describe your experience at iftar street?
Agnese (participant): I found myself in a very beautiful and welcoming atmosphere. It was a perfect place even just for chatting and for enjoying a nice day. It was definitely enriching. I have always been curious about discovering new foods, customs that are different from my own… I always find a way to learn something new that I enjoy.
Giorgio could not participate in this year’s iftar street, but he shared his experience as a long-time attendee.
I believe it’s a very beautiful event because it involves so many people (believers but not only) and represents an opening of Bologna’s muslim community towards the city. It’s a way to bring people together and at the same time to provide clarity in the face of the widespread misinformation that still exists about this topic.
It’s an event that enriched me and that was very interesting, also because people that come from many places of the world and that live in Bologna participate, and they bring with them cultural elements from their countries of origin. At the first Iftar Streets I attended, I was still working in a bar-bookshop, and I went together with a Gambian employee and a Senegalese, both of them muslims. They were also telling us about that moment from their points of view, allowing us to appreciate different nuances and interpretations of the religion. As often happens, some elements remain the same, but at the same time they change depending on the country and on the context in which they are experienced.
Alice (participant): My experience at Iftar Street was really good. I liked the stands a lot, in particular the stand of the perfumes and hennè. It was a special moment and it enriched me, because I clearly felt a strong sense of community and the joy of being together. Beyond the food that was offered (which was very good), some people brought dishes from home and shared them with complete strangers.
This aspect really struck me. I also had the opportunity to speak with the people that were sitting next to me and that told me about their Ramadan and about their memories of the first one, that they lived as kids. It was really interesting. My favourite moment, however, was when we all sat down together at the table, waiting for the food and eating together.
©Hassan de Filippis, CIB
What does hosting an event of this scale mean for the citizens of Bologna and beyond?
Agnese: Bologna has always been a politically active as well as a culturally and socially diverse city, interesting and fun. Iftar Street is a public event that resonates well with the city’s spirit and that enriches it even further. In Bologna everyone can feel at home, also during Ramadan.
Giorgio: Beyond the religious significance it can have, it also assumes a secular, social and civic value. From this point of view, an event like this, which allows many people to eat together and to share food, is one of the best ways to get to know each other, to meet and to overcome prejudices, misunderstandings and barriers. Especially when we realize that many things belong also to other culinary traditions. Knowledge leads us to greater peace of mind, because it reveals how, ultimately, there’s something shared among different cultures.
It is no coincidence that I am from Puglia, and many traditional dishes, especially Christmas sweets, are very similar to those that are prepared during Ramadan in several North African countries. These traditions have become intertwined over the centuries, through complex historical events, colonisations, wars, conquests, but today represent what is left of those exchanges. When you find these elements in other contexts, or they are offered by people that you thought were distant from you, a sense of closeness immediately emerges. And it’s precisely for this reason that such experiences are so valuable.
Alice: I believe it’s very important that events like this to take place Bologna as in other cities, because they allow us to come into contact with different cultures and religions and because they often help overcome stereotypes and ignorance, especially when we speak about religions that are described by those that do not practise them. About Islam in particular, many myths still exist in Western society, and this is why it is so valuable to see with our own eyes and hear directly from those who live it what it truly means, what its traditions are, and how they are experienced in everyday life.
©Hassan de Filippis, CIB