Credit: Vice

“You’re going to be hungry if that’s all you eat,” one of my younger brothers tells me at sahoor, the pre-dawn meal Muslims eat before abstaining from food and drink from sunrise to sunset as required by the faith in the month of Ramadan.

“I’ll be fine,” I lie, forcing down one last bite of oatmeal. A few spoonfuls are all I can stomach of the farce. My mother won’t let me break it to my brothers, but Muslim women are prohibited from fasting while menstruating.

Fasting isn’t the only one of Islam’s main tenets that’s off limits to women during that time of the month; the five daily prayers are similarly banned, as well as reading from a copy of the Quran and stepping into a mosque, depending on who you ask.

Any sort of bleeding defiles the state of “purity” required for these acts of worship, even if its from a cut. The same is true for urinating, defecating, vomiting, or passing gas. But while a quick […]