Ramadan in Bosnia: Muslims in Bosnia have been closely following the war in Gaza this Ramadan. Many of them recall their own experiences during the Bosnian war in the 90s – when they too had limited access to basic foods. Al Jazeera’s Aida Hadzimusic reports from Sarajevo.
This is a traditional starter for Ramadan meals in Bosnia homemade sour cream and cheese melted together the ingredients were impossible to put on the table during the Balkans war we used a little bit of powdered milk not much we could not afford to waste two tablespoons if there was oil we would use it with some water and for the sour taste you normally get from cheese we use vinegar.
She says the genocide in Gaza reminds her how she broke her fast with improvised meals. I think of people in Gaza every night we at least had some brand flour or weed rice but thousands of children in Gaza don’t even have their mothers to make iftar for them, A few supplies of humanitarian Aid were often the only option for meals in Wartime Bosnia.
The setup of a typical wartime Kitchen in the Historical Museum of Bosnia the display shows what people ate at the time mainly canned goods from humanitarian Aid the first challenge was what to put on the table, and the second was how to prepare food without gas and electricity, cooking was mainly improvisation on a makeshift stove.
Hunger was not the only problem it was nearly impossible to pray in the mosque under constant bombardment the central mosque in Sarajevo was heavily damaged but the moazin who calls to prayer says nothing stopped him from performing his duty with or without food and despite losses in his own family.
Ramadan in Bosnia: Balkans war survivors empathise with Gaza
