As Muslims worldwide welcomed the Eid al-Fitr holiday, photojournalist Hamada Elrasam turned his lens to Cairo where communities sought relief in rituals, festivities, and causes, especially amid the country’s deepening economic crisis. Captions were written in collaboration with Elle Kurancid.
Egypt Celebrates Eid Al-Fitr, Marking the End of Ramadan
Thousands of worshippers gather around Old Cairo’s Mosque of Sultan Hassan for the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and the start of Eid al-Fitr, which is determined by official sightings of the new moon and one’s geographic location.
Ahead of Eid celebrations, young siblings visit their neighbors as part of a holiday custom in Egypt among children, who are also traditionally gifted a new set of clothes for the occasion.
The Egyptian Clothing Bank, a zero-waste nonprofit, hopes to distribute Eid outfits to 50,000 children in need, including orphans and refugees. Egypt’s latest, pre-pandemic figures say about one in three people live in poverty.
Inside the Egyptian Clothing Bank, which donated over two million pieces of clothing to low-income communities last year. According to the World Bank’s latest, pre-pandemic data, 60 percent of Egyptians are poor or vulnerable.
Salma, a mother of three, searches through used shoes for a pair to wear during the holiday. “My kids are young, but they understand what it means to be poor,” she says, “like when they see other kids with new outfits for Eid.”
For shoemaker Abu Yasser, business is slow this year, even though he’s been offering his handcrafted footwear for about half the price of other shops. “My customers are even bargaining down the cost of shoe repairs,” he says.
Waffa, a single mother who lives with over a dozen family members, including nine children, combs her daughter Mariam’s hair as her nephews dress up in their new Eid outfits from a local charity.
Hajj Mohamed, the owner of a sweets factory, says, “The current buying power is weak. My raw material costs [especially for sugar] have skyrocketed, and shoppers aren’t buying many gifts or thinking about family gatherings.”
As part of his own Eid tradition, a real estate businessman throws handfuls of one Egyptian pound banknotes from his office window after Eid prayers, across from the Mosque of Sultan Hassan.
Thousands of worshippers, many of them mired in economic hardship and social inequality, come together for Eid prayers in the outdoor courtyard of the ancient Sultan Hassan Mosque, Old Cairo.