Smoke-free Zone

Whether it be water pipes or cigarettes, smoking in public spaces is now banned in Syria – an astounding development for the country and a first for an Arab state. Alfred Hackensberger has the details

Men in a water pipe café in Syria (photo: DW)
Tough times for water pipe smokers: anyone who violates Syria's ban on smoking in public spaces runs the risk of a heavy fine

​​ Drums beating and trumpets blaring, a band from the Revolutionary Youth Union (RYU) marches through the streets of Damascus. Their pace snappy and rhythmic, they are an impressive military sight in their blue uniforms. But this time there's nothing to celebrate: no presidential birthday, no anniversary of the ruling Baath Party to which the youth organisation is affiliated.

The march is purely for educational purposes. Young girls and boys carry hand-painted pictures through the streets, warning of the fatal risks of cigarettes and water pipes.

The reason is the new law banning smoking, which came into effect on 21 April. "We want to support the new law so that all citizens stay away from tobacco and other drugs," explains Wissam Khaddah of the RYU. "We want a strong and healthy population."

Drastic penalties

Syria's president, Bashir Assad, signed the act a whole six months ago, imposing a strict prohibition on smoking in all public spaces that do not have an open ceiling or roof. Hospitals and universities are now affected along with all restaurants, pubs and cafés. There are no exceptions, neither for the Sheraton and Four Seasons Hotel, nor for any other luxury hotels and restaurants.

Penalties can be drastic, ranging from 8 euro to 1600 euro. Those who are repeatedly caught smoking run the risk of imprisonment. Syrian civil servants can even lose their lifetime position with the state. A special police unit is responsible for the ban, touring cafés and restaurants to monitor compliance.

A telephone hotline with an easy-to-remember four-digit number has been set up for people to report violations. The new law is a final step, Syria having banned tobacco advertising in 1996 and smoking on all forms of public transport in 2006.

Men smoking water pipes in the Old Quarter of Damascus
"Like an epidemic": between 1999 and 2007 alone, women's use of water pipes rose by 200 per cent and men's use by 60 per cent, according to Dr Chaaya

​​

Nawfara Café, a family-run business handed down from generation to generation over the past 300 years, is located in the shade of Damascus' Umayyaden Mosque. Almost every tourist who wanders through the old town centre takes a break here.

Under normal circumstances the Nawfara, meaning "source", is a hub of constant activity. Since the smoking ban, however, the guests have only been sitting outside in the café's courtyard. "We have space for fifty guests inside as well," says the manager Shadi Rabbat. "But now it's completely empty." He and other café owners hope the government will reconsider the smoking ban.

Niches for hookahs

Ahmad Kozoroch of Rawada Café, a no less well-known spot close to the Syrian parliament building, knew that things would turn out this way as early as last year, when President Assad signed the act. "In France, for example, the smoking ban is not as bad – you can just go outside for a quick cigarette. But you can't do that with a water pipe, unfortunately," says the café proprietor.

The Rawada and Nawfara cafés are among the lucky ones, though. They both have courtyards where their guests can still smoke their narghile, as water pipes are called here. Other cafés that don't have similar facilities are facing hard times. Many of them were opened after the narghile came into fashion in the 1990s, becoming big business. More and more people began meeting up to smoke water pipes together.

Men smoking in Bahrain (photo: dpa)
The kick of the narghile: men smoking water pipes in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf

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Soon the bubbling smoking utensil was everywhere: at home in front of the TV, after meals, at family get-togethers, in restaurants and cafés and on Sunday picnics.

The companionable narghile's success had a lot to do with the misconception that it is healthier than evil, carcinogenic cigarettes. How can tobacco mixed with honey and tasting of apple, vanilla or strawberries be bad for your health, especially if everything is filtered through water?

Increasing tobacco consumption

For Dr Monique Chaaya, a professor at the American University in Beirut, this is a disastrous development in the Middle East. The harmless appeal of the water pipe has encouraged 60 per cent of 16-19-year-olds to try it, she says.

The new smokers also include a high rate of women. "It's like an epidemic," says Dr Chaaya. Between 1999 and 2007 alone, use of water pipes rose 200 per cent among women. The same figure for men came to only 60 per cent.

The main reason for the narghile's popularity, according to Dr Widem Hizem Ben Ayoub of the Salah Azaiez Cancer Institute in Tunisia, is that "young people want to be like Europeans and see smoking as a sign of independence, especially young women."

That does at least explain the rise in tobacco consumption in recent years – not only in the Middle East but in the entire MENA region, which includes North Africa. "It's a challenging region," says Dr Fatimah Al-Awa, the regional advisor for the World Health Organisation's (WHO) anti-tobacco initiative.

"Social acceptance for smoking, cultural diversity and new trends such as women's emancipation have contributed to the rise in tobacco consumption," she says.

According to a WHO report, some 60 per cent of men smoke in Syria and Jordan; in Tunisia around 50 per cent. In Yemen the proportion of men consuming some form of tobacco is apparently 77 per cent. Arab states have only recently signed up to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), gradually passing laws banning advertising and smoking since then.

Cigarettes, he says, are a social imperative and a step into adulthood for young men. "It's not easy to convince people to give up when teachers and doctors smoke and a pack of cigarettes costs only 50 cents."

Laissez-faire

Judging by the empty cafés in Syria, the smoking ban seems to be working. Yet it's not a result of state PR or the Syrian Revolutionary Youth Union's educational march.

Man smoking a water pipe (photo: AP)
Particularly popular with the younger generation: many people across the MENA region are insufficiently aware of the health damage caused by smoking water pipes

​​The question remains as to how long Syria can afford to upset restaurant proprietors and smokers. Perhaps there will soon be a compromise, like in Spain for example, where café owners can decide whether to hang smoking or non-smoking signs on their doors depending on the size of their premises.

Smoking bans in other Arab states have either not been implemented at all or have only been enforced half-heartedly. Who cares whether someone smokes at the airport while waiting for their luggage, in a taxi or outside a train toilet? It's just another law that exists only on paper.

It's an attitude that sometimes gets the locals' goat, but at other times can be very gratifying. In any case, it is part of the general laissez-faire attitude that makes the region so attractive, particularly for visitors from the West.

Should Syria set a precedent, hard times are on the way for the smokers of the MENA region, but also for smoking visitors from abroad, who have always savoured being able to do what their home countries no longer allow them to do: smoking (almost) wherever and whenever they like.

Alfred Hackensberger

© Qantara.de 2010

Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire

Edited by Aingeal Flanagan/Qantara.de

Qantara.de

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