Under the cover of night in the Iraqi city of Mosul, Rayan and Ali break the silence by drumming to announce suhur, the pre-dawn breakfast during the holy month of Ramadan. The Islamic State (IS) group which controlled the city for three years before its ouster last July had banned drumming, along with other Ramadan traditions that make up the festive spirit of the dawn-to-dusk fasting month. But since this year’s Ramadan started in mid-May, Rayan Khalidi and Ali Mahboub have been doing their nighttime rounds, donning traditional keffiyeh headscarves and jalabiya robes. The Ramadan drummers, known as “messaharati”, are “part of the religious and social heritage of Mosul”, the now war-battered city which has stood for centuries as a trading and cultural hub of the Middle East, said 25-year-old Rayan. But the jihadists of IS decreed that such drumming was a sin, under their rigid interpretation of Islam enforced by its own courts and henchmen. Ironically, Mosul residents had a Ramadan much like any other in 2014, when it started just days after IS had proclaimed its “caliphate” spanning tracts of Syria and Iraq. Families descended on Mosul’s tree-dotted parks along the River Tigris in the relative cool of dusk to share “iftar”, the meal that breaks the daytime fast. All across town, men and women gathered in coffee shops and restaurants, many clutching nargileh water pipes or smoking cigarettes — that was before IS laid down the law segregating the sexes and banning smoking at the risk of corporal punishment. Most of Mosul’s restaurants and open-air cafes then closed their doors. “Some of them stayed open for business after iftar but people were afraid to go for fear of punishment by IS who always found some reason to make arrests,” said 29-year-old housewife Umm Raghed. Mosul’s famed dishes Ramadan is a time for family reunions in Muslim countries, but in Mosul such events often only come about after several hours of shopping to collect the ingredients for the elaborate dishes for which the city is famed. Under IS rule, “women did not have the right to go out, except in cases of extreme necessity, and even then a woman would have to be accompanied by a man and fully covered by a black veil”, said Nahed Abdullah, a 32-year-old taxi driver. Hassan Abdelkarim, 26, whose sister was killed when their home was bombed last year, said the jihadists had destroyed many of Mosul’s mosques. Published in Daily Times, May 30th 2018.