World

Best Photos of Ramadan 2013 from Around the World

Holy Month

A month of fasting from dawn to sunset has come to a close for Muslims. See how the world celebrated.

galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-tease_j9s4vg
Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua, via Landov; M. Andika/AFP/Getty; Sanjay Kanolia/AFP/Getty; Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-tease_ugpivv

A month of fasting from dawn to sunset has come to a close for Muslims. From mass readings of the Koran in Indonesia to Iranians breaking their fast after sundown with Iftar, see how the world celebrated.

Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua, via Landov; M. Andika/AFP/Getty; Sanjay Kanolia/AFP/Getty; Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-1_tlwzyy

Hundreds of Indonesian students read the holy Koran on the second day of Ramadan at Ar-Raudhatul Hasanah Islamic boarding school in Medan, Indonesia.

Dedi Sahputra/EPA, via Landov
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-2_hqle2f

Indian Muslims offer noon prayers on the last Friday of Ramadan. These men, all wearing taqiyah, stand in front of shopfronts outside a mosque in Kolkata.

Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-3_cimlu5

A Muslim man in Indonesia enters a mosque on July 9 to perform prayers, silhouetted by the afternoon light.

Syamsul Bahri Muhammad/Getty
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-4_cxsstc

An Indian worker dries vermicelli, used to make a traditional sweet dish often included in Iftar, the meal Muslims break their fast with, at sunset during Ramadan.

Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-5_shr8zi

Palestinian Muslims walk past Israel’s separation barrier on the outskirts of the West Bank town of Bethlehem in order to attend prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on the second Friday of Ramadan.

Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA, via Landov
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-7_bczoaf

Iranians break their day-long fast with Iftar after sunset in Tehran. Though the content of Iftar varies from nation to nation, in Iran it commonly includes chai tea, lavash or barbari bread, Paneer cheese, herbs, dates, and halva.

Maryam Rahmanian/UPI, via Landov
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-9_tkdylb

Two women help another in a wheelchair through a hedge of cacti at a distribution center in Afgoye, Somalia, where the UAE Red Crescent handed out food aid to more than 5,000 internally displaced persons as part of a program during Ramadan.

Tobin Jones/AFP/Getty
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-10_dl4xwl

Indian Muslims perform ablution, a traditional cleansing of parts of the body, before offering prayers at a mosque in Kolkata.

Bikas Das/AP
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-11_vi16yt

Illegal Rohingya Muslim immigrants look out from the Immigration Detention Centre in the Kanchanaburi province of Thailand. Many Rohingya Muslims arrived in Thailand in January after a bloody conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma forced them to flee.

Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters, via Landov
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-14_sfb7uf

Iranian Muslims of various ages and backgrounds pray at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran.

Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua, via Landov
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-15_byj38y

Muslims break their fast at a fruit market in India on the first day of Ramadan.

Sanjay Kanolia/AFP/Getty
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-12_xlsdum

A studious group of young Bahraini Shiite Muslim girls read the Koran at a mosque in the village of Sanabis.

Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-17_wq0mhb

Hundreds of Indonesians gather at a Gudang Garam tobacco factory in Kediri, waiting to receive zakat, or alms, which are given to the poor during Ramadan. Each person received 10,000 rupiah (1 USD)—a luckier few received up to 20,000 rupiah.

M. Andika/AFP/Getty
galleries/2013/08/08/best-photos-of-ramadan-2013-from-around-the-world/best-ramandan-18_alohwk

Indian Muslim women (with wildly varying tastes in color!) offer prayers outside the Grand Mosque in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, on the last Friday of Ramadan.

Yawar Nazir/Getty

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.