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The increase in religious awareness, as exhibited by the Youth Club’s decorations outside the main cafeteria, was not the only ripple effect of the traditional Ramadan spirit at AUB. This year, the holy month was marked by several end-of-fast suhours and iftars. While many AUB clubs and societies competed to attract students and faculty members to a distinctly wide variety of such Ramadan events, they were relatively fewer in number and less widely publicized than those hosted in previous years. Only one student society organized a Ramadan event this year: the Business Student Society, which held a suhour at the Awtar Restaurant in the Monroe Hotel. The animated evening featured live performances by four different singers and was attended by almost one hundred people, including the Director of Student Affairs Wadad Husseini. In line with the sense of charity and compassion imparted by the holy month of Ramadan, two separate iftars were held for orphans—one hosted by the Makassed Club and the other by the Palestinian Cultural Club at the Ada Dodge Hall Cafeteria. The annual iftar of the Cultural Club of the South, meanwhile, took place in the Mary Dodge Hall Cafeteria on AUB’s lower campus. Almost all the other Ramadan events were held at more opulent places off campus. Three of the iftars were booked at the popular Gefinor Rotana Hotel by the Syrian Cultural Club, the Lebanese Medical Students International Committee, and the Student Representative Committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences. Other end-of-fast events were held by the Lebanese Heritage Club (at Socrate), the Jordanian Cultural Club (at Le Meridien Hotel), the Palestinian Cultural Club (at the Crown Plaza Hotel), the Youth Club (at the Safir Heliopolitan Hotel), the Heliopolis Club (at the Saffroun Café), the Saudi Club (at Abdel Wahab), and the Lebanese Mission Club (at the Mövenpick Hotel). Asked their opinions regarding Ramadan activities this year, many students said they had been reluctant to participate in any festive activities, given the tense social and political situation the country is passing through, perhaps the reason why there were fewer student-organized Ramadan events this year.
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