From Egypt to NZ – Esra’s story

Esra Ahmed is originally from Alexandria in Egypt, a country where most of the population are Muslim. She moved to New Zealand three years ago with her husband and three children.

We spoke with her as preparations for the holy month of Ramadan were beginning, and asked her what it was like for Muslims born overseas, compared to celebrating in their homeland?

Ahmed says there are quite a lot of social difference from her homeland compared to New Zealand where Islamic faith is part of everyday life. She feels that New Zealand is a very accommodating country for her culture as everything is here and everyone is respectful towards them, however, people lack knowledge of Islamic culture, particularly Ramadan “Kiwis assume Ramadan is just about not eating and drinking all day”.

For Ahmed Ramadan is about the joy to fast and obey their god, Allah and do what he wants them to do for the spirit of Ramadan. This includes focusing on personal virtues like patience.

Ahmed says she is trained to fast as part of her faith, and “it’s not as hard as you think”.
She stresses however, that there is much more to Ramadan than just fasting, it is also a time to share, and it is a time of equality. “Everyone back in my country is fasting* and it doesn’t matter about class, rich and poor people are fasting as they are all the same”

Ahmed says that in Egypt there is a lot of preparation in the lead up to Ramadan. These include creating decorations to display around the house as well as Fanoo lanterns, made of wood with carvings of Arabic writing on them. When she was young her neighbours would block the street off with tables and every house would bring a plate of food to eat together. She says there was no separation between class as all came together and ate, sometimes they “didn’t know who was next to them but it didn’t matter.”

Ahmed feels Muslim New Zealanders are completely normal people who live in “a beautiful and loving culture”, live by their beliefs and are polite and respectful members of society. However, she feels their religion may be somewhat secluded and many Kiwis are unsure how to approach them. She hopes with the number of Muslims rising, non-Muslim New Zealanders will learn more about “our lovely religion”.

Muslims have been in New Zealand since 1850, however the population grew slowly with only 1000 Muslims recorded in 1976. According to Insamer the population reached 6000 by 1991 and “increased rapidly” with the New Zealand Muslim population “expected to be over 100,000 by 2030.”

*There are some exceptions to fasting, for example, children, people who are ill, traveling or pregnant.