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Duaa Altholaya has gone without food or water the past 12 hours — a daily occurrence since the beginning of Ramadan — yet the Page High School freshman has no complaints.

Even as there are weeks of similar days ahead of her.

"This is important to my faith," says 14-year-old Duaa.

Ramadan is the month when Muslims believe Allah revealed the Quran to the prophet Muhammad. From sunup to sundown, observant Muslims abstain from food, drink, tobacco, sex and other pleasures as a way of practicing self-restraint and renewing their faith. It is also a period of spiritual reflection and giving thanks for Allah's blessings.

Because Islam follows a lunar calendar, Ramadan, which began Sept. 13, shifts each year on Western calendars. Ramadan ends with Eid al-Fitr , the Feast of the Breaking of the Fast, on Oct. 13.

"Towards the end of the first or second day I get hungry, but I get used to it," says Duaa at a meeting of a girls group at the Islamic Center of Greensboro on a recent Friday evening.

For children who fast — they usually start at puberty — it is a minor transition from year to year. Many families wake children up at 5 a.m. to eat, then let them go back to sleep so they won't be as hungry, says Naima Mnasri, the co-leader of the youth group.

"After sunset you can eat as much as you want, but you usually don't want so much," Mnasri says.

"I never really get off task," says Ayah Khalifa, 14, also a freshman at Page. "I don't mind anyone eating in front of me. My friends support me. They don't try to tempt me."

Israh Othman, 13, is a freshman at Western High School and, like the other older girls, wears a hair covering to school.

Her hajib, a veil similar to a shawl but worn over the hair and sometimes the face, has lots of pink in it and matches her shirt.

"My schedule doesn't really change at all," Israh says. "The only (other) difference is if someone offers you gum, you don't take it. I think of it as, some people don't eat for days, and I feel for them. I can understand it better because I've been through something similar."

Born in Saudi Arabia, she lived in Egypt before coming to Greensboro with her family.

"I've always been proud of being Muslim," Israh says. "You always have to strive for the best. You could easily go to school and eat, but all of us know it's the wrong thing, and we wouldn't do it. It teaches you never to quit."

Some of the girls say they are among only a handful of Muslims at their schools.

"I'm lucky because I have 13 Muslims who go to my school," says Shazha Elnoush, a Grimsley High School freshman. "We are like a whole table sitting there — it's easier for us not to be tempted. We have other friends, but at Ramadan, it's just a benefit."

The Muslim students at Western asked for a place to go at lunch, and the school obliged.

"Last year they gave us a room, and we stayed there during lunch," says Yusra Nasri, a sophomore. "We hung out or did our homework."

Other schools also are flexible.

"There's not many Muslim people at my school, only two or three," says Susan Aboeid, a fifth-grader at Lincoln Middle School who mostly fasts on the weekend because of her age. "Most of the people, when they are fasting, they will go to the library to read a book."

During the day, Muslim students may miss a prayer, but Yusra makes it up when she gets home.

Ramadan teaches Yusra more than just how to abstain from food.

"It teaches patience, because you have to wait to break the fast," Yusra says. "It really helps you in a lot of ways."

Contact Nancy H. McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nmclaughlin@news-record.com