WOMEN AND RAMADAN
Friday 28th September 2007

Ramadan is a special month in a year. It is a month of forgiveness and every Muslim is bond to keep this Holy Month in good and honoured manner. Muslims should have mercy on each other, especially the businesspeople and the petty traders at the market, as some traders charge high prices for their commodities. As we all know the Ramadan takes a lot of expenses, because people do prepare food for their parents, friends, and family members as it’s all part of the Holy Month. In this case, there should be a mercy for people especially the women who are the most vulnerable, because some of them get money from their husband, who a times don’t give sufficient amount, but they manage it in order to make ends meet.

And others who are petty traders normally take commodities from people and resell and get their profit from which they survive. So if the prices of these commodities are sky rocketing, what will does these poor women do? And yet they are have families to take care of.

She She She spoke to some women at the Serrekunda market and these are some of the concerns they raised.

Bintou Saidy: These days the market is very poor, because we encounter fish shortages. The fish we normally buy for D25.00 is now D50.00. Imagine someone is given D150.00 for as fish money and fast breaking food. What will that person do?

Fatou Jallow (market vendor): I used to buy and resell things like pepper, okra, cabbages, tomatoes, etc . But things don’t favor me much because the amount I used to buy them and now is different, so you can see that after selling them the profit I normally get doesn’t solve all my problems and you know in Ramadan we spend a lot.

Rohey Camara (a cashier): I came for shopping for both my dinner and fast breaking food but the market is very horrible today. Even meat that used to be D75.00 per kilo is now D80.00. Not everybody can afford it because if you need to buy meat for both dinner and fast breaking and also prepare some food for the young ones who can’t fast. What will you expect to eat the following day? I guess the sellers should try and reduce the prices of their goods for the sake of the Ramadan, as we the women suffer a lot when it comes to shopping.

Isatou Jallow (House wife): Since I entered the market I’ve been roaming about and don’t know what to buy, because anything I ask for I will find out that it has been increased. And fish has become very expensive. I think people should consider Ramadan because it is a very great month in which people even give out charity to the needy ones.

Sira Ceesay (Fish seller): The reason for the high price of fish is not our fault because we also go to the riverside to buy fish and resell it. Many sailors have gone for sailing and the women can’t sail for themselves. So the price will not be normal because we also get it at a high price, and after selling, the little we get that’s what we also use to support ourselves, though it’s Ramadan, yes! But it’s hard for us and how can you help someone else when you can’t do it for yourself?

Adama Jawara (Nurse): Things are moving smoothly but with some difficulties. I guess for the sake of this Holy Month, vendors should try and help their customers, as it’s well known to every Muslim that this month is for helping each other and sowing mercy, especially on women. Imagine a widow woman who has children and all these children have to fast and this poor and helpless woman is the bread- winner, how do you expect her to cope with the situation? Let’s help each other as it will be a reward for us. The market is definitely not normal; nothing is easy these days. Even the price of a bag of charcoal is increased, much more food items. If things should remain like it won’t help.

The long and short of this story is that every body should have mercy on each other because when mercy is lacking in anything many people suffer. The rich ones should help the poor ones as no one is born with wealth. Although the religious leaders always preach about helping each other as it is part of our religion, they need to emphasize it even more. Most of our women folk are poor and in every nation that women remain poor it will be difficult to eradicate poverty as they form the majority. They should therefore be the number one target when it comes to eradicating poverty.