ISLAMABAD: In Ramadan, Basma Jihad, a Palestinian mother of four, spends most of her evening time in the kitchen of her home in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, where she prepares some Arabic dishes along with Pakistani cuisine for iftar of her family.
The family has been living in Islamabad for the last 29 years but still loves to cook some favorite Palestinian and Middle Eastern dishes like ‘Musakhan,’ ‘Maqluba,’ ‘Mansaf,’ ‘Ouzi,’ and ‘Qidreh’ for iftar to have a sense of connection with their cultural heritage while living far from their homeland.
“In Ramadan, we mix in between Pakistan culture and our culture,” she told Arab News, cooking ‘Katayef,’ an Arabic dessert commonly served during the month of Ramadan, and pouring vegetable oil in a pan to fry samosas, a deep-fried South Asian pastry with a spiced filling.
“I like it really in Pakistan the iftar, it is different from ours.”
She noted that almost all Pakistanis break their fast with dates and starters like ‘fruit chaat,’ ‘pakoras,’ and samosas, while Palestinians directly start with the main course.
Though Jihad intends to stay in Pakistan with her family due to frequent Israeli attacks on Palestinians, they periodically visit Palestine and remain in touch with their relatives and friends over the phone.
“If they [my kids] go there, I am always afraid. May be my son do anything without thinking, and they [Israeli forces] kill him or put in jail. This is one reason I am staying here,” she told Arab News.
“Islamabad is our homeland now. We really love Pakistan.” she said,
Jihad and her family visit Hebron city, her hometown in Palestine, every two or three years.
She brings with her some special spices and cooking ingredients to Islamabad to prepare the Arabic cuisine. These ingredients include sumac, an integral spice to the national dish of Palestine known as Musakhan, bulgur, jameed (dry yogurt) and green olives.
“We visit our country and when we come [back], we put all these things in our luggage,” she said.
Jihad’s rented house in Islamabad is decorated with a Palestinian flag, Al-Quds muffler and different shields like the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to keep in touch with her native values.
All of her four kids, two sons and two daughters, were born in Islamabad as she moved here along with her husband Jihad Muhammad after their marriage.
One of her daughters, Maryam Jihad, is a secretary to the Omani ambassador to Islamabad and loves the Pakistani food as “it is a mix of tastes which we don’t have in our culture.”
“We have only one taste in the food but in Pakistani culture in each spoon you have a very different taste of the food,” Maryam said, describing biryani and white chicken handi as her favorite Pakistani foods.
Maryam said her family loves to have Pakistani food on the iftar table to enjoy a variety of tastes.
Recalling her visit to Palestine in February last year, she said she took the Pakistani culture there by gifting the native handicrafts, spices and shawls to her relatives and friends.
She said she wants to have her cousins and friends from Palestine over here to spend Ramadan in Pakistan and experience “the difference of taste” in the South Asian country.
