Beirut -
Under the dome of an old mosque in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, a group of widowed and divorced women live in a courtyard called "Al-Khanka", which contains old rooms that lack the minimum necessities of living.
Al-Khanka, which is owned by the Department of Islamic Endowments, turned decades ago into a shelter for widowed and poor women who have no breadwinners, and currently about 18 women share their suffering with their children by securing their livelihood and harsh living conditions.
In the outer courtyard, Um Ali sits with her neighbors, and they talk about their anxiety about Ramadan, which is burdened with deprivation and high prices, "until we started sharing the price of a bundle of bread."
These women lived through many phases of poverty, “but we did not experience deprivation like these days,” according to Hajja Zamzam, one of the oldest women in Khanka who has lived in it for 20 years.
The women of Khanka say that they have not bought any kinds of meat for months, and are waiting for Ramadan and the holidays to cook it if they receive rations of aid and sacrifices.
She regrets that they accumulate debt bills in the shop to buy some of their daily food needs.
Nevin calculates the cost of preparing a Ramadan table, and says that each one needs about 200,000 pounds to feed her children a main meal without meat, so Umm Ali interrupts her, denouncing, "And where do we come for the price of a gas bottle of about 300,000 pounds?"
Then you give an example of bulgur with salad, and you will find that its current cost is about 140,000 liras, which is 10 times more than its cost before the outbreak of the economic crisis since the fall of 2019.
Khanka rooms are a refuge for widowed and poor women who have no breadwinner (Al-Jazeera)
On the outskirts of Khanka, the popular markets in Tripoli, which is one of the poorest Lebanese cities, are bustling, commemorating the rituals of Ramadan.
Most of the women and men complain about the exorbitant prices of meat and vegetables, as one of the vendors tells Al Jazeera Net that people's purchasing patterns have been turned upside down, as most of them resorted to rationing quantities and accepting non-fresh quality in exchange for buying them at a lower price.
Thus, the challenges of tens of thousands of families are exacerbated, in the midst of a crisis that has imposed a bitter reality that has pushed more than 80% of the population towards the poor classes, according to international estimates.
Challenges of the Lebanese in Ramadan 2022
Experts are unanimously agreed that the economic and social challenges of Ramadan are a passing stage of a downward trajectory for the reality of Lebanese families.
In 2022, the rate of increase in prices amounted to 2100% in the first months of this year compared to their prices before the 2019 crisis, while it was by 700% in the same period in 2021, according to what the President of the Consumer Protection Association in Lebanon Zuhair Berro indicates to Al Jazeera Net.
Commodity prices are affected by sharp fluctuations in the dollar exchange rate, which recently amounted to 24,000 pounds on the black market, which controls the actual value of the currency (the official exchange rate is 1,507 pounds), and the approximate rate of wages is less than $100, and the minimum wage (675,000) is equivalent to $28.
And last Ramadan (2021), the Crisis Observatory at the American University stated that the cost of breakfast, which consists of appetizers and a basic meal per person for a family of five, is estimated at one million and 800 thousand Syrian pounds each month.
At that time, the dollar exchange rate was about 12,500 thousand pounds, and the government was providing, through the Central Bank of Lebanon, support for the import of basic commodities.
This means that the cost of iftar for 2022 will increase by more than 100% compared to last Ramadan.
A popular market in Tripoli before Ramadan (Al-Jazeera)
semantics
Academic and researcher advisor on poverty and development issues, Adib Nehmeh, considers that food habits in Lebanon have been directly affected by the crisis.
He told Al Jazeera Net that the negative transformation occurred in the food habits of the middle class, while the quality of food for the poor class did not change, but rather reduced its quantities to the minimum limits.
This brings us back to the report of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), issued in August 2021, which indicated that more than 30% of Lebanese children sleep with empty stomachs, and that 7% of families do not have enough food or money to buy it, and that 60% of Families are forced to buy food by accumulating unpaid bills or borrowing.
Here, writer and economic expert Mounir Younes tells Al Jazeera Net that poverty related to food security affects about a third of the population of Lebanon, considering that people face the crisis of food costs with flexibility according to the economic concept, "as they abandon some food habits, and are satisfied with the basics."
But the biggest problem, according to the expert, is that the basics are expensive, so the prices of vegetables have become fantastic, as well as the prices of oils, "reaching historical levels that we did not know before the Russian war on Ukraine."
On the other hand, people complain about the chaos in prices and their differences between regions and stores, to the extent that buying food commodities has become a daunting task for the Lebanese, in search of something cheaper.
Munir Younes links this impact, which affects the confidence of the Lebanese in the market, with several factors, most notably:
The lack of information for both import and production, in terms of cost prices, with the Ministry of Economy and the consumer entity, which hinders the merchants’ confrontation with this data, and consequently, some of them show any cost invoice to the Ministry without the latter having the ability to audit it and verify the legal margin of profits.
Trade in Lebanon, historically, is monopolies by a small segment of importers who control the market, as there are less than 10 importers who provide basic consumer needs;
This means that the market is not open to competition in favor of the consumer.
In Lebanon, there are about 24,000 points of sale, between a small shop and a large store, and only about 20% have a tax number, which exacerbates the phenomenon of speculation and chaos.
Lebanon imports 100% of its consumer needs, in addition to the high prices of most raw materials from the source, amid fluctuations in exchange rates, so traders anticipate events and raise their prices randomly.
Accordingly, price distortions were reinforced, according to Younes, but the problem, in his opinion, lies in the structure of the Lebanese economy since before the crisis, and the absence of effective control over the movement of trade and import.
deepening poverty
This fact refers us to a study recently issued in March 2022 by the Official Statistics Department on the "multidimensional index of poverty for 2019", which included 39,000 families in Lebanon, which is a reading of the reality of families in the first quarter of 2019. According to the study, The guide will constitute an indicator to compare the reality of poverty, before and after the crisis.
Academic Adib Nehme reviewed the data of the study, pointing out that poverty before the crisis was at a rate of 53%, and it includes the percentage of families that need assistance to meet their basic needs, because their income does not cover it.
After poverty affected about 80% of the population, Nima links it to the reality of income, according to the study of the Department of Statistics:
About 18% of the population receives a salary of less than 650,000 pounds, which before the crisis was equivalent to 435 dollars, and now equals 27 dollars.
About 25% of them receive salaries ranging from 650,000 pounds to 1 million to 200,000 pounds (it used to be equivalent to $800, now equivalent to $50).
About 30% of the population receive salaries at a rate of two million and 400 thousand pounds, which was equivalent to 1,600 dollars, and today it is equivalent to 100 dollars.
About 21% of the population receive salaries ranging between two million and 400 thousand pounds, and less than 5 million pounds (it was equivalent to about 3 thousand and 300 dollars, now it is equivalent to 208 dollars).
Only about 6% of the population earn more than 5 million pounds.
While there have been no fundamental adjustments to families’ incomes, the cost of living in Lebanon at the present time, to provide basic expenses such as food, housing, electricity and transportation, requires about 5 million pounds for a small family, according to the expert.
In other words, the required minimum wage is equivalent to the income of the segment that used to constitute 6% of the population of Lebanon, according to Nehme, "which means that Lebanese families are witnessing drastic changes in their lifestyle, and are seeking to control their consumption to the point of austerity."