Looking Back At Ramadan 2019

This year, the auspicious month of Ramadan will be very different compared to previous years due to the rise of the Coronavirus and the various health precautions adopted to curtail the damage that stems from the Coronavirus. In an effort to engage the spirit of Ramadan, take a quick look back at how QAIC celebrated this month by gathering members of our community and bringing the various cultures and religions that make up the fabric of our society.

In 2019, the Qatar America Institute for Culture (QAIC) in partnership with DC Scores and America’s Islamic Heritage Museum hosted an Interfaith Poetry Night and Iftar to celebrate Ramadan with DC community members at its Washington, DC headquarters.

Yanina, a student at the Maret School and member of DC Scores, performing a selected poem

With over 100 guests in attendance, including students, artists, and law enforcement, the event featured an interfaith poetry night followed by an Iftar (breaking the fast). The event presented a special opportunity to celebrate and appreciate poetry and its influence across cultures, continents, and religions and build understanding and awareness in the community around Ramadan and Islamic practices in Qatar and the United States.

Student poets from DC Scores; Ja’Quan, a student at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and Yanina, a student at the Maret School, and published American-Muslim author and poetess, Hawa Fuseini, performed their poetry ahead of the breaking of fast dinner.

Attendees gather to break the fast

The Executive Director of QAIC noted that: “Events such as this Iftar highlight the strengthening reliable partnership between the United States and Qatar. As we gather to break the fast, we note the relationship between the two countries stretches from art, culture, sports, economy and growing interfaith links, and we celebrate the educational ties of scientific and cultural advancement that six American universities in Qatar’s Education City are solidifying every day – a mission that has been – for centuries – at the center of the Islamic tradition’s rich history of cultural enlightenment. This year we mark Education City’s class of 2019 and the particular milestone of Texas A&M’s campus in Qatar graduating its 1000th student.”