Five Things Ramadan Is Teaching Me About Culture, Brands and Power

The thought that sparked The Unmistakables in 2018 was simple: how could we create a company that helps brands and businesses understand society as it is, not how we’d like it to be?

A recurring proof point was the direct mail I would get from Asda every Ramadan offering 5kg of rice and gallons of oil for the holy month. There’s no doubt there are countless households that need such volumes, notwithstanding the rising conversation around the free emotional labour Muslim women often take on at home. But I couldn’t help thinking there were opportunities being left on the table for more modern Muslim consumers in the UK. They were being left on the table because, systemically, the partners and agencies brands worked with didn’t have the cultural confidence to activate new ideas that would resonate and generate revenue.

While I reflect on being a first mover from my background in the marketing industry - and a Muslim on both Campaign’s A List and PR Week’s Power Book - I think I’ve earned a place to share what I’ve seen change. Over the years our timelines have become lifelines to connection with others, but in doing so they also burn us with relentless scrolling, feeding our craving to know more and stay informed. 

For a neurodivergent brain like mine, it can become obsessive and prohibit time to truly reflect - which is exactly what Ramadan demands. So I’ve turned on Do Not Disturb, locked away my phone, and summoned five Ramadan reflections to share this year.

1. Muslim-majority countries offer a different kind of growth

The sentiment among and around Dubai expats has been mixed recently, with many questioning why government funds should be used to help them leave the country. Yet countries like Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Oman are exactly where global brands are looking for their next wave of growth.

With this comes the complexity of culture: reconciling so-called Western liberalism with what is often perceived as “backwards” when it comes to human rights. When we zoom out and look at history, as Taz Latif has brilliantly done on LinkedIn this month, we see that much of the world’s progressiveness actually stems from Islamic cultures. A small initiative called Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026 also caught my eye - a campaign about fostering knowledge sharing and cultural appreciation. 

2. UK media plays a disproportionate role

Sal Naseem shared what it feels like to hear Islamophobia on the football field, and we know culture inevitably lives in the comments. Scrolling through views from a professional horticulturist, a dad of three, and countless others, I see the divisiveness of the term “inclusion” in action.

While football bodies rush to say diversity and inclusion are important, they rarely get to the root cause of why people feel the way they do. Their corporate communications are picked up by the media, but they don’t wash through with naysayers - or even those sitting on the fence who have already decided the UK is being “colonised by migrants”.

Meanwhile, a Portuguese goalkeeper pretended to be injured so his Muslim teammates could break their fast - an act that in the corporate world would quickly be labelled “allyship”. On the topic of allyship, I’m seeing a repeat of articles I wrote some thirteen years ago, before the term entered the corporate zeitgeist.

I thought back to when I asked Lisa Moretti and Nihal Arthanayake about their experiences of fasting as non-Muslims in 2013 similar to a recent article about non-Muslims fasting in solidarity with friends. 

What’s changed over the past decade is the connectivity between us: the bonds we once built predominantly offline are now formed predominantly online.

3. Pop culture shows us a different way

While I resist saying “back in my day”, I’m realising I simply have to move with the times and watch how artists galvanise global audiences.

Forget Ed Sheeran’s Azizam - it’s Cardi B in Saudi Arabia that I’m obsessed with. An Instagram post of her in an abaya and on a treadmill has garnered millions of views and shows how she’s playfully integrating her - shall we say - wit with the Arabic language. Mashaaaaaaalllllaaahhhhh.

The reality is that there are millions of Muslim consumers around the world, informed by their faith, connected through social media, and looking for ways to spend their money.

Brands stuck in the old quagmire of using legacy media to reach the “hard to reach” have their work cut out.

In our research with a major UK media outlet, we uncovered perceptions of bias and distrust towards mainstream organisations - often fuelled by not seeing Muslims in decision-making positions or being considered in outreach.

Even when they are in those seats, they face questions internally about whether they’re the best fit for the job, and externally from their communities about “giving in”.

Riz Ahmed’s Channel 4 diversity speech in 2017 rang in my ears when I started The Unmistakables. In it he talked about the need for representation. But since then we can all agree representation alone is not the hill to die on.

Listening to Ahmed recently, it seems he’s moved on too - arguing that being “in the room” can take more of a toll on the minority than the benefit gained by the majority.

Instead, he argues for the creation of new rooms and if Beyoncé’s foray into country music has taught me anything, he’s right.

4. Brands and businesses can start playing bigger

Over eight years the landscape has changed in a positive way.

Mainstream media outlets now feature how Vimto became just the tonic to break the fast, and IKEA’s Ramadan “Iftar at Ours” activation keeps appearing in my algorithm as a step change in brand understanding and connection with communities.

We’ve played our part in campaigns like this through our longstanding relationship with the advertising agency Mother, who continue to bring us in to build cultural confidence and test strategy and ideas with our network of culture makers — including the formidable Nafisa Bakkar, whose business Amaliah, continues to set the standard for great work.

Over the years we’ve also worked with a number of other brands — whether early in the insights process with Sainsbury’s or in the activation phase with Tesco. We’ve even influenced Ramadan work on the other side of the world through Sweat’s Ramadan Reset.

All of this sits alongside the internal culture work we’ve done, highlighting that inclusion is for life, not just for Ramadan.

My good friend Sherilyn Shackell often talks about how marketers can change the world. And while I’d like to think we’ve shifted things a little through our work, I can’t help but look outward at what’s happening in the UK social landscape — and globally — and feel that, cliché as it sounds, we’ve taken one step forward and two steps back.

The Muslim communities I’m part of are feeling fearful. So when a brand becomes visible, it becomes about more than metrics. It becomes about the imprint they leave in our psyche and how we feel about ourselves.

While many would argue that purpose is in the bin, I’ve seen how inclusion done well leads to immediate revenue lifts and long-term reputation shifts.

Our work with Uber Eats is an example of this: training sales teams to feel more culturally confident about Ramadan, generating more revenue through the app for Muslim-owned businesses, and growing share of voice and market within Muslim communities.

5. Fear gets in the way

The one thing I see time and time again in businesses is fear.

It used to be fear of getting it wrong. Now it’s fear of losing your job in a stagnant job market. In the context of constant restructuring, nothing feels certain anymore.

Having recently completed a major research project on perceptions around halal food in the UK, I’d say that fear in the workplace is being heavily influenced by fear about what’s happening in the world.

This is where the spirit of Ramadan really shines through.

Since it began in mid-February, I’ve said no to more than I’ve said yes to. I’ve realised that to be the best founder I can be, I have to switch off somewhat from the noise.

As I look around on my commute, I see sombre faces hooked to screens — the notion of looking up and looking out limited to the few.

There’s one teaching that stays with me during this time:

“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.” — Qur’an 13:11

As we look ahead to an increasingly volatile world, perhaps the real question is:

What are we changing within ourselves?