The sociology of a changing Turkey in the mirror of Ramadan

One of the liveliest fields that anyone who wants to understand the relationship between religion and society in Turkey must turn to is Ramadan. Ramadan, of course, is not merely a season of worship consisting of the fast kept by individual people. It is also an unparalleled social event, a festival, that sets the society's memory, rhythm, habits, codes of respect and sense of solidarity in motion anew every year and brings people together. For this reason, looking at Ramadan is in fact looking at the deep structure of Turkish society.

Given that it is a festival that recurs every year, it is quite clear that when we place the photographs taken each year side by side, we have a very solid window for observing the changing or unchanging dimensions of our society. That is why I particularly follow, every year, the research done on Ramadan and fasting. Let us continue to record the continuities and changes among the data we shared in this column in previous years:

GENAR's latest research, published in February 2026, sets out up-to-date data on precisely this deep structure of Turkish society. According to the research, 78.3 percent of society says, "When Ramadan comes I become very happy, I feel renewed, I experience spiritual pleasures." The share of those who say they "definitely" keep the Ramadan fast is 67 percent. Those who cannot fast for health reasons are 9.6 percent. Those who say they fast whenever they get the chance are 6.9 percent. Those who say they give zakat, fitra or alms are 80.4 percent; those who attend iftar invitations 68.6 percent; those who go to tarawih 43.5 percent. These figures tell us something very clear: in Turkey, Ramadan is still one of the main backbones of society.

ARE WE SECULARIZING OR BECOMING MORE RELIGIOUS?

These data show that claims repeated for years as a kind of ideological wishful thinking, such as "society is rapidly breaking away from religion," "the youth have become entirely secularized," "Ramadan is now merely a folkloric remnant," at the very least do not fully reflect social reality. Of course there is change. Of course urbanization, education, digitalization, individualization and class mobility affect the way religious practices are performed. But that sharp picture of rupture that is wanted to be placed inside all narratives of change is not seen in the field with the same clarity. On the contrary, Ramadan practice tells us of a very strong continuity.

Of course this continuity is not new. We can make it more visible by recalling some data I presented here in previous years: for instance, in the Presidency of Religious Affairs' 2014 "Religious Life Survey in Turkey," the share of those who said "as long as my health permits, I fast in the month of Ramadan" was 83.4 percent; those who said they never fast were at 2.5 percent.

What matters here is not only the share of those who actually fast, but that the overwhelming majority of society describes itself within the sphere of legitimacy of the practice of fasting. That is, some people may be unable to fast for health reasons, may fast irregularly; they may even not fast at all, but they do not position themselves outside fasting, alien to it, or against it. This is an extremely important indicator in terms of social religiosity. Because religion lives not only through performed rituals but also through the sense of respect and belonging toward those rituals.

Research carried out in later years also largely confirms this line. For example, in the "Perception of Religiosity in Turkey" study published by the Ankara Institute in 2023, the share of those who say they fast regularly again comes out at 67 percent. In the research "Faith and Religiosity in Turkey in Numbers" by Nişancı and colleagues, the share of those who say they fast "often" or "always" in Ramadan is 75 percent; those who fast "occasionally" are 9 percent; those who "rarely" or "never" fast are 16 percent. That is, what we have is not the chance snapshot of a single study but a line of data spread over years and broadly confirming one another. And what this line says is this: Ramadan practice in Turkey is not dissolving; perhaps it is transforming, but it is not dissolving.

One of the particularly noteworthy points here is the question of the youth. One of the most voiced headings in Turkey in recent years has been the "youth are rapidly becoming atheists" discourse. This discourse has been greatly inflated on the basis of certain examples, especially on social media. Yet field research presents a more complex, more nuanced and more real picture. In Nişancı's study, the rate of regular fasting is 76 percent in the 18-24 age group; 73 percent in the 25-34 group; 77 percent at ages 35-44; 76 percent at 45-64; and 74 percent among those over 65. That is, no dramatic rupture between the young and the old is visible with respect to the Ramadan fast. Indeed, in some young groups the rates are seen to run at the same level as among the old. This shows, at least when viewed through fasting, that the younger generations' tie to religion is not as weak as supposed.

NOT ALL RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OPERATE WITH THE SAME SOCIOLOGICAL LOGIC

Actually, here we should not miss a very basic sociological point: not all religious practices operate with the same sociological logic. Prayer and fasting are not the same. Prayer is a practice spread over every day of the year, requiring high continuity and discipline. Fasting, on the other hand, is a practice concentrated calendrically, supported by a strong mechanism of social accompaniment, encompassing the family, the street, the workplace, the media and public life. For this reason, even if there are secularization processes, they do not erode all forms of worship to the same degree. Indeed the KONDA data show this too: in 2021 the share of those who pray regularly was 44 percent, whereas the share of those who fast regularly stood at 67 percent. The April 2024 Barometer also states that about 60 percent of society spent the whole month of Ramadan fasting and that no meaningful change has been seen since 2022.

This means: religious life in Turkey is neither rising nor collapsing as a monolithic block. Some practices are more fragile, some more durable. Ramadan is at the head of these durable fields. Because Ramadan is not only a matter of individual piety; it is also culture, memory, family, neighborhood, hospitality, patience, waiting, sharing. Society as a whole readjusts itself around Ramadan. From suhoor to iftar, from fitra to tarawih, from the mukabele to preparations for the festival, this month gives the ordinary flow of life another rhythm. Precisely for this reason, in the sociological sense, Ramadan produces a strong "habitus"; it builds patterns of behavior, sensibilities and belongings independent of people's individual intentions.

That the share of zakat, fitra and alms comes out at 80.4 percent in the GENAR data is also very important for this reason. Because this datum shows us that Ramadan produces not only the "fasting individual" but also the "sharing society." So too with the 68.6 percent attendance at iftar invitations. That participation in tarawih remains at 43.5 percent shows that not all Ramadan practices are experienced with the same intensity; but it also reveals that the real backbone, that is, the culture of fasting and sharing, is spread across a much broader base. In other words, in Turkey Ramadan is lived not only in the mosque; it is lived also at the table, at home, in the street, among kin, among neighbors and in the hand extended to the poor.

We have dealt with the sociological analyses based on the above data in more detail in our book Ramazan Aynasında Sosyoloji, Tarih ve Siyaset (Sociology, History and Politics in the Mirror of Ramadan), published by Beyan Publications.

The summary of the visible landscape of Turkey in the Mirror of Ramadan is this: society is not a blank slate that can be transformed in a single stroke, as some engineering projects have supposed. That Ramadan can still remain so alive, despite the secularization efforts pursued against religion throughout the Republic, at times harshly and at times in more refined forms, shows that religion's place in this society is not only institutional but also cultural and existential. People may sometimes slacken in prayer, may sometimes experience fluctuations in daily religiosity, may sometimes show differences in the language of belief; but when Ramadan comes, society still recognizes itself, remembers, gathers itself. That is why Ramadan in Turkey is not merely a month of worship; it is the unsilenceable memory of society.