Every year before Ramadan, the commander of Iran’s police force issues an announcement in which he asks people to behave appropriately, in a way he describes as worthy of Ramadan. He adds that they could be detained if they do not abide by the month-long abstinence from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex during the day.

This year, the custodians of the shrine of Abdolazim have come up with and heavily publicized a plan to accommodate those who cannot fast.

The shrine of Abdolazim in Ray, a small town south of Tehran, is a popular site and regularly receives an overwhelming number of visitors and pilgrims. In anticipation of Ramadan, the management of the shrine has installed water fountains in a corner, marking the area with red signs reading “drinking water.” They acknowledge the fact that certain citizens are unable to fast, but to avoid unnerving or disrespecting the observant crowd, they provide drinking water behind thick dark canvases.

Upon learning of this accommodation, I was reminded of a brutally hot summer afternoon during Ramadan in the early '80s. I was out shopping with my mother in Tajrish Square in northern Tehran. I was extremely thirsty. We ended up going door to door asking the shop owners for water. Short and petite for an 8-year-old, it was obvious that I was not expected to fast yet. Still, the shopkeepers considered such a request outrageous.