For many Muslims, observing the holy month of Ramadan is an intimate experience that is central to who they are. It is a month that is revered, waited for, and cherished. For young Muslims who grow up in spaces where they are not the majority, navigating the Holy Month is a delicate process. Muslim students in non-Muslim majority schools, for example, often feel varying degrees of perceived safety to actually explore their relationship to their faith and their participation in the practices of Ramadan. At home, they may be encouraged to meditate, strive to uplift their character through intentional truth-telling, restraint, and patience in the face of challenges. Yet, at school, it is business-as-usual, where most of their peers may even be oblivious to the various internal and external efforts being made. Ramadan, after all, is really about internal discipline and being able to rise to a higher version of oneself–no easy feat even for adults. 

Professionalism, an idea widely presented and accepted as a neutral standard and benchmark for success in the workplace, is in fact one of the many masks that neo-colonialism wears. It implicitly outlines behaviours and expectations that are deemed legitimate and, by default, puts into question the capacity of people who exhibit ways of existing that fall outside of these parameters. But, which cultural frameworks serve as the basis for these ‘benchmarked’ ways? Who do they centre? Most importantly, how have they become implicitly embedded in the psyches of people as ‘the norm’?