DUBAI // For entrepreneur Rania Kana’an, Ramadan is the perfect time to take stock of what’s happening in her life and press the "reset button".
The 30-year-old Palestinian-Canadian co-founded the Charicycles custom bicycle business with her sister Zaina in 2014. The company specialises in rebuilding second-hand bicycles to the specification of customers and for every five bikes sold, Charicycles funds a bicycle for a child living in a refugee camp in Palestine.
"Ramadan is my reset button," she said. "It pushes me to think about my priorities and what I want to do for the next 12 months and the benefit is more focused energy by the end of it."
She has been fasting during Ramadan for as long as she can remember and from a young age she has recognised the value of the Holy Month.
"When I was younger I used to do the baby fast, which is fasting until noon, but then I started to do the full fast from sunrise to sunset," said Ms Kana’an, adding she uses the month as an opportunity to refocus herself on what is really important.
"It is a time to cleanse the mind, heart and body. It is truly a time of reflection, of being more aware about our treatment of ourselves, other people and things in our daily lives and realising how much we have to be grateful for."
A typical day includes around six hours of work followed by a swim at the beach just before sunset.
"[I have] iftar with my family, watch an episode of something on TV and then catching up with friends, or now that I am learning a language I spend my evenings doing that," she said, adding that Ramadan can also have its challenges as shorter working hours mean can mean not everything is done as efficiently as possible.
In general Ramadan gives Ms Kana’an the chance to spend more time with her family and the slow down in pace allows her to better balance work with other elements of her life.
"I come out more cleansed," she said."I also use it as a time to meditate, so at the end of the month I feel much more energised and focused."
"[It makes me] think about my consumption, we have a lot to be grateful for," she said. "Overconsumption does not make us happy. Being happy with what we have achieves that."
Despite her love for her mum’s cooking, she tries to be as disciplined as possible
"My mum is an excellent cook," said Ms Kana’an. "Although this is really challenging, I try to keep my meals light when I break my fast. The trick is dates and yoghurt. But something I cannot resist cheese qatayef. I call them nuggets of heaven."
Ramadan isn’t about over eating and over indulging, said Ms Kana’an.
"Keeping my meals light allows me to be grateful for what I have and also allows me to function after iftar. Dates and yoghurt are excellent sources of nutrition and hydration and allow me to go through Ramadan without suhoor, which is extremely unhealthy."
Her advice to others fasting during the Holy Month is to "think about what you have, how much you consume, and how much you throw out".
"It is a transformational experience when a whole month is used to tap into your spirituality and work on yourself to be a better person," said Ms Kana’an.
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
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UAE - India ties
The UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner after the US and China
Annual bilateral trade between India and the UAE has crossed US$ 60 billion
The UAE is the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil for India
Indians comprise the largest community with 3.3 million residents in the UAE
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first visited the UAE in August 2015
His visit on August 23-24 will be the third in four years
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, visited India in February 2016
Sheikh Mohamed was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2017
Modi will visit Bahrain on August 24-25
THE BIO
Occupation: Specialised chief medical laboratory technologist
Age: 78
Favourite destination: Always Al Ain “Dar Al Zain”
Hobbies: his work - “ the thing which I am most passionate for and which occupied all my time in the morning and evening from 1963 to 2019”
Other hobbies: football
Favorite football club: Al Ain Sports Club
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
