Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Moussa Diarra
Published on 2024-03-21 14:04:27
After a carefully completed day of work, many women go above and beyond to serve the fasting individuals. How do they manage to do it?
By Fadi CISSÉ
Bamako, March 21 (AMAP) It is 3 PM. Under the scorching sun of this Ramadan month, Amina, an executive secretary, does not even think about enjoying an extra minute in her air-conditioned office. Too many obligations to manage at home. She packs up and hops on her two-wheeler to head to the market. With a slightly confused mind, the newlywed is not yet sure what to buy for dinner to offer to her in-laws.
“I think pasta would be quicker to prepare. Or do you have any other suggestions, mom?” she asks on the phone to her mother before leaving her workplace.
Like Amina, for many active women in the public and private sectors, juggling household tasks and professional responsibilities is a major challenge during this time. Fortunately, they are resourceful in finding ingenious solutions.
After a diligently completed workday and with the advice of her mother, our executive secretary finds the perfect dish to serve for dinner: pre-cooked fonio accompanied by a meaty red sauce. A delicious and easy-to-cook recipe, she summarizes. “I do my shopping at the market and prepare my ingredients before returning home. Once home, I save time by delegating certain tasks,” she explains, revealing that she has hired a housekeeper to ensure the meal is served on time for breaking the fast.
“Before I arrive, she prepares the quinquéliba, the porridge, and sets the table. Once there, I take over to handle the remaining tasks such as preparing the juice and other dishes,” she confides.
The schedule is, of course, much busier for women who have to prepare the meals for breaking the fast for both service and home. Habibatou Mariko, an office employee, has been living this reality for over ten years. She copes with her experience. “I often leave the office at 4 PM. When the traffic becomes unbearable, I park my car in a safe place and take a motorcycle taxi to return home a little earlier. I have never hired a housekeeper. I prepare my porridge and tea the night before, which I then refrigerate. Once I’m back, I reheat them and place them on the table before breaking the fast,” she says.
THEMSELVES FASTING– As an intern in a public structure, Kourouni Diarra also juggles with the same constraints. From 7 AM to late evening, this young woman in her twenties dedicates her time to her professional activities in Ouolofobougou, in the III Commune of Bamako. But since the beginning of Ramadan, she has changed her schedule. She now returns home in Yirimadio, in the VI Commune, at 3 PM to have time to take care of her stoves.
Kourouni has a special feature: she is the only daughter of her parents and therefore responsible for household activities. “On days when I am a little late, I get help from my mom and the servant. Sometimes, some of my brothers assist me to go faster even if it bothers me,” she confides, wanting to do everything herself to relieve her mom of this burden.
Many women who go the extra mile during this time to serve the fasters are fasting themselves. But not all. Alima, for example, is one of the three daughters-in-law of the family. She stops fasting every time it’s her turn to cook. “I can’t go to work and then come back to cook because we quickly get tired under this sun. So, to successfully complete all my tasks, I don’t fast,” says this mother of three boys.
This justification makes Abdoulaye Maïga, a teacher of religious subjects at Madina High School, uncomfortable. “The woman, he emphasizes, cannot give up her fast because of her household chores, just as the man cannot for similar reasons. Fasting is an obligation for every adult Muslim.”
Reciting a passage from Quranic verses, the scholar explains that God said he created men and jinn to worship Him. However, he mentions some reasons that may prevent a Muslim from fasting, including illness, travel, and a woman’s menstrual period. The mentor at the Islamic Center for Training and Documentation (CIFOD) indicates that fasting is a priority for the Muslim and cannot be supplanted by daily work. On this subject, he suggests that working women take leave for the month of Ramadan.
Assan and her husband do not consider this possibility simply because they have no issues during this blessed month. They have been married for almost four years and live together with their six-month-old baby. Both work and finish at the same time at their respective workplaces. In the absence of their parents-in-law at home, they manage to live in perfect harmony. Thus, the one who gets home first takes care of household chores before the other arrives. “My husband cleans the house, sets the table, and does small tasks before my arrival for breaking the fast. After breaking the fast, I take care of making a simple dinner while he looks after the child,” details our interlocutor.
FC/MD (AMAP)
Coulibaly Gogo Bathily: More than an executive secretary
She handles all the work at home and in the office with the same calm courage and welcoming smile. She is Mrs. Coulibaly Gogo Bathily. During the month of Ramadan, this executive secretary at the Malian Press and Publicity Agency (AMAP) goes through particularly long days characterized by both physical and intellectual burdens.
With over twenty years of professional life under her belt, the workers at the agency affectionately call her “Aunt Gogo” have always managed to respond with unfailing amiability to the requests of everyone, from executives to simple staff and visitors.
During this blessed month, she is at the office no later than 7:30 AM. This slender, ebony-toned forty-year-old woman shows unwavering courtesy at work and does not run out of “prayers” for her colleagues and visitors. Her daily routine at the office is typical: she manages the reception and appointments of the general management, receives and sorts through the important mail, and addresses the multiple requests generated by the many activities of AMAP.
During Ramadan, her tasks increase as Mrs. Coulibaly Gogo Bathily is responsible for the dishes intended for the breaking of the fast of the editorial staff composed of journalists, photographers, editors, and printers who work late at night to finalize the daily newspaper L’Essor. Taken at the end of the day by the documents to be filed in the thick folder for the director, she still keeps a watchful eye on the quinquéliba brewing in a pot. When the infusion is ready, she strains it with a sieve and pours it into a thermos that takes its place on a tray with bowls. She can then finish her office work.
But her day is not over yet. On her way home, Aunt Gogo calls her housekeeper to light the fire under the pots of quinquéliba and porridge. Along the way, she buys some missing condiments. Once she arrives at her destination, the mistress of the house knows she has no time to waste and, without changing, heads to the kitchen and starts on everything that needs to be prepared and cooked before breaking the fast.
By 9 PM, the marathon of professional and household tasks is completed. The executive secretary and the mistress of the house can then pass the baton to the mother attentive to her son’s education, who is preparing to take his baccalaureate exams in a few months.
At the end of such a day, no one can deny the feisty woman the legitimacy to invite the new generation to work hard and with love.
FC/MD (AMAP)
Read the original article(French) on AMAP
