At 5:54 p.m., the West High cafeteria grew unusually still for a Friday. Plates of food — creamy Om Ali from Egypt, tangy musakhan from Palestine — sat untouched and cups of water waited along crowded tables as students watched the clock, counting down the final seconds until sunset. When the call to prayer came, students reached for dates and water, officially ending the day’s fast before some stepped aside to perform the Maghrib prayer.
The evening marked the third annual Ramadan iftar hosted by West’s Muslim Student Association, a tradition that has grown each year into both a religious observance and a community event open to the entire school.
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is considered the holiest period in Islam. Muslims fast daily from dawn to sunset, abstaining from food and drink while focusing on prayer and charity. The fast is broken each evening with iftar, a meal often shared with family and community. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, core acts of worship practiced by Muslims worldwide. According to the Pew Research Center, Islam is the world’s second-largest religion, with about 2.0 billion followers globally and an estimated 3.5 million Muslims living in the United States.
West senior Shahd Suleiman, president of the Muslim Student Association and a practicing Muslim herself, helped organize this year’s event — the third since students began hosting schoolwide iftars.
“This is the third annual one [West has] done,” Suleiman said. “We did one before MSA was created, and then the other two we’ve done under MSA.”
Attendance and organization have grown each year as organizers focused on making the event open to a wider community, inviting non-Muslim students and Iowa City residents into the experience. This year, the gathering extended beyond West’s student body. Superintendent of the Iowa City Community School District, Matt Degner, attended the iftar and spoke about its importance, and students from North West Middle School and several elementary schools were also present.
“We really want this to be an open event,” she said. “It’s an event for Muslims to break their fast, eat and have fun, but it’s also an event for outsiders [who] aren’t Muslims to come and enjoy themselves as well.”
While to non-Muslims, this tradition of fasting during Ramadan may seem strenuous, the purpose of the month is to encourage self-discipline and empathy for those in need — a perspective that Abeer Guama ’26 shares as a practicing Muslim.
“Fasting during Ramadan means being able to appreciate the little things like food and what we have,” Guama said. “Something’s taken away from you for a couple hours, [and] you get to really think about people who don’t get food like we do.”
Students observing Ramadan fasted for 12 hours, going without food or water through all seven class periods before returning to the cafeteria to break their fast together. For Guama, the iftar offered a chance to eat, pray and reconnect with classmates after a long day of finals and fasting.
“It’s a great experience to have classmates and community members break your fast with you,” Guama said. “It’s nice sharing culture and religion with people, just so everyone can learn about it.”
Ellie Chen ’26, while not Muslim herself, attended her first iftar at West after her friends invited her. For Chen, the event offered a window into a practice she had never experienced and a chance to observe the ways fasting structures the school day for Muslim students.
“My friends all invited me and encouraged me to come, and I thought it’d be a fun experience — and free food,” Chen said.
In Islamic tradition, guests are often given special consideration at meals, particularly during Ramadan iftars. Hosting and honoring guests is considered an act of generosity and respect, reflecting the broader values of hospitality emphasized in the faith. At many iftars, guests may be invited to eat first, and extra care is taken to ensure everyone feels welcome, illustrating the central role of community in the month of fasting.
“I learned that guests are really valued because we got to eat first before everyone else, even though they’ve been fasting for a long time,” Chen said. “It’s important to learn about other people’s cultures so we can be more accepting of each other.”
The foods served at West reflected the global diversity of Islamic cuisine, with dishes spanning multiple countries and regions. Sharing a variety of foods reinforced the idea that Ramadan is observed across cultures, each with its own culinary traditions. For many students, tasting these dishes offered an introduction to cultural practices beyond the classroom and highlighted the role that food plays in building community.
Suleiman noted that organizing the event required cooperation from across the school. Tables had to be arranged, food prepared and distributed, and space set aside for those performing Maghrib, the sunset prayer that signals the end of each day’s fast and one of Islam’s five daily prayers.
“It really does take a village,” Suleiman said. “Even people that weren’t in MSA came and helped set everything up.”
While West’s MSA hosted the event, members of the Johnson County Mariam Girls’ Club assisted with serving food and coordinating funding for the main dishes. According to organizers, MGC founder Viana Qadoura helped secure funding and recruit volunteers to prepare several of the dishes served that evening.
Students not fasting also participated by serving meals, arranging seating and welcoming attendees. Beyond the physical act of fasting, Ramadan is a time for increased attention to spiritual practice. Suleiman described it as a period that encourages Muslims to evaluate personal goals and strengthen religious devotion.
“For me, it’s like a renewal month,” she said. “It makes me want to reset everything, set better goals for myself and focus on my religion more. It helps renew me, not just religiously, but as a person as well.”
MSA leaders hope the event will continue to grow in size and significance in the coming years, possibly moving to a larger space to accommodate more students and members of the wider Iowa City community.
“I really hope people continue doing this,” Suleiman said. “Maybe it’ll even need a bigger place than the West High cafeteria.”
As the evening drew to a close, students and community members lingered over shared plates and conversation. The event offered more than a meal, serving as an opportunity for Muslim and non-Muslims to engage with one another across faiths and witness the discipline of Ramadan firsthand. Laughter and conversation moved through the cafeteria, blending the rhythms of a school evening with the traditions of a month-long observance.
