(14 Mar 2025)
LIBYA RAMADAN TRADITIONAL MEAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 4:24
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tajoura, Libya – 7 March 2025
1. Various of ingredients of bazin, a popular traditional Libyan barley-based dough, being boiled in a large pot
2. Various of volunteers mixing ingredients using large sticks to make dough
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdallah Fetory, volunteer:
"We make preparations. When it comes to flour, we use around 100 kilograms to 150 kilograms (220 pounds to 330 pounds) a day. As for the beans, we use around 50 kilograms to 75 kilograms (110 pounds to 165 pounds) per day along with lentils and chickpeas. As for the oil, we use olive oil. And we use still water, of course. We start preparations at night, and the beans are even soaked in water the night before. Some items need to be prepared in advance. Bazin is a popular traditional dish, but it is also one of the easiest and most nutritious meals."
4. Various of volunteers kneading and shaping dough
5. Various of volunteers mixing dough with sauce
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdel-Fattah al-Sayeh, volunteer:
"Tajoura (a suburb east of Tripoli) is well known for the bazin. Nowadays, at weddings and other events, we prepare and serve bazin. It is considered our way of honoring guests, we do it by serving them bazin."
7. Various of volunteers preparing large pots of stew made of a mix of tomatoes, oil and vegetables
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saleh Gras, volunteer:
"We started (the initiative) with simple portions of rushda (a traditional meal), made in one large pot. Now, we prepare 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of rushda as well as four large pots of bazin every day. This has now become a yearly tradition and charitable individuals are contributing to it."
9. Various of volunteers distributing meals to people, filling up pots
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdel-Fattah al-Sayeh, volunteer:
"This line is made up of people come from all over Tripoli. The line is not just made up of poor people, but also rich, middle class people and others. If this was only meant for the poor, they wouldn’t stand in line for food. Some people have nothing to eat, yet they still refuse to queue (alone) because of their sense of pride. That’s why you’ll find people from all walks of life lining up outside."
11. Various of people queuing to receive meals
STORYLINE:
Every year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a Libyan town comes together to prepare — and share — one of their all-time favorite dishes: bazin.
In Tajoura, just east of Libya’s capital of Tripoli, it’s the perfect food for iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break the dawn-to-dusk fasting of Ramadan.
Savory and rich, bazin is usually made of unleavened barley flour and served with a rich stew full of vegetables and — hopefully — mutton.
If those aren’t available, which they often haven’t been in the past decade and a half due to Libya’s violence and turmoil, a simple tomato sauce will do.
Preparing it is a joint effort, and Tajoura residents of all ages are eager to help with roles from making the bread, handing it out to the poor or donating ingredients to the community.
Typically, the men of Tajoura volunteer to make the bread.
One of the volunteers, Saleh Gras said this tradition started out when Tajoura residents came together to make small portions of food to hand out, but the initiative grew over time.
The volunteers work in a makeshift communal kitchen, using long wooden sticks to stir the barley flour water in large pots to make the dough.
And in Tajoura, it’s also time for bazin.
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