SBS to mark Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr with all Australians
Content in 22 languages,* a collection of movies to stream free on demand, food shows and recipes, community partnerships across Australia, and more to mark Ramadan in 2024.
SBS is launching another strong offering to mark Ramadan with the community and continue to enrich and entertain all Australians with diverse voices and distinctive content.
Across SBS, SBS World Movies, SBS Food and SBS VICELAND, an array of television programming will give all Australians content that promotes cultural sharing and understanding. SBS On Demand will feature a collection of titles to enjoy while SBS Audio will share multilingual articles and explainers that explore the main facets of Ramadan including fasting, spiritual reflection, charity and family gatherings, as well as social videos to share Ramadan greetings in multiple languages.
Managing Director of SBS, James Taylor, said: “We are incredibly proud of our Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr network offering this year, which is available in 22 languages and reflects how communities are observing this time together. More than 800,000 Australians observe Ramadan and Eid, and as well as marking this time with the community, we’re pleased to share content that increases cross-cultural understanding for all Australians.”
SBS Food will broadcast two weeks of cuisine from around the world including Jason Atherton’s Dubai Dishes, Nigel Slater’s Middle East, and John Torode’s Middle East. A special Eid al-Fitr episode of The Cook Up with Adam Liaw will feature two pioneering women in the food industry: Malaysian-Australian food entrepreneur Engku Putri Irna Mysara and Racha Abou Alchamat, founder of Racha’s Syrian Kitchen. Online, SBS Food will share recipes from around the globe, including a five-part video series celebrating the flavours of The Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean and interviews with Alimah Bilda from Island Dreams Café in Sydney about the family recipes she enjoys at this time of year. SBS On Demand will also feature Nadiya’s Party Feasts, Rick Stein From Venice to Istanbul, and Sara’s Istanbul Delights Season 2 to satisfy viewers’ tastes for delicious recipes.
SBS Audio language programs will bring fresh perspectives with highlights that include: SBS Arabic24 reporting on a new A-League football initiative allowing Muslim players to break their fast during game time; SBS Dari interviewing Muslim scholar and wedding celebrant, Homam Hafiz, on the significance of Ramadan in Islam and rules about fasting for people with chronic diseases; and SBS Urdu’s new four-part podcast series, Harmony in the Fast: Nourishing the Body, Mind, and Spirit, with medical experts discussing diet, exercise and sleep whilst fasting.
Across SBS News, there will be a wide-range of stories from Australia including the effect of cost-of-living pressures on Muslim-Australian families and charitable activities during Ramadan and coverage of key local events including Ramadan Nights in Lakemba and the Eid event at the Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne. SBS News in Arabic will interview a First Nations Muslim woman in Port Augusta on how she found her faith, as well as Janeth Deen whose family were hawkers in the Australian outback and helped build the Holland Park Mosque, the oldest continuous mosque in Australia.
Across SBS, choice is abundant for families with popular content including the award-winning SBS documentary series The Swap, where students from different cultural backgrounds swap schools in an experiment in cultural exchange. SBS World Movies will air a collection of international movies: French film Arab Blues about a woman returning to Tunis from Paris; Arabic film Hajjan about a mythic coming of age set in the high-stakes world of Bedouin camel racing; and Moroccan film Casablanca Beats which tells the story of a former hip-hop rapper working with underprivileged teens.
Available to watch now on SBS On Demand is a curated collection for Eid including comedy Gawwezni aka Marry Me; the animated film Bilal: A New Breed of Hero on the birth of Islam; and comedy-drama Romantic Razia. Watch character-driven stories with Limbo, which captures the story of a young Syrian musician awaiting requests of asylum on a remote Scottish Island, and French comedy-drama Rock the Casbah (2013) as a young woman returns home to Morocco for her father’s funeral.
To increase student understanding of Ramadan and Eid, SBS’s education arm, SBS Learn, has produced a new teacher resource in partnership with the Islamic Museum of Australia which includes free, printable resources for primary and secondary students aligned to the Australian Curriculum.
Around Australia, SBS will be partnering with local councils and community groups to mark Ramadan and Eid including the City of Canterbury Bankstown for Ramadan Nights in Lakemba where SBS will be running a special audience activation. SBS is also a proud partner of the Ramzan Iftar dinner in Port Augusta (SA), SalamFest hosted by the Tasmanian Islamic Foundation (TAS), the Eid event at the Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne (VIC), and more. Read the ultimate guide to Ramadan and Eid events here.
To find all our content visit: www.sbs.com.au/ramadan
*SBS’s Ramadan and Eid content is available in Arabic, Bangla, Bosnian, Burmese, Dari, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Kurdish, Malay, Malayalam, Nepali, Oromo, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Rohingya, Somali, Tamil, Turkish, and Urdu.
2:00am Daylight Saving Ends in NSW, VIC, TAS, ACT and SA. Clocks move back one hour at 3am AEDT to become 2am AEST.
