EGYPT: Authorities have banned the use of waterpipes in cafes in the historic al-Hussein district popular with tourists

Record ID: 562430

  • Title: EGYPT: Authorities have banned the use of waterpipes in cafes in the historic al-Hussein district popular with tourists
  • Date: 6th November 2009
  • Summary: CAIRO, EGYPT (FILE) (REUTERS) MAN SMOKING SHEESHA PEOPLE SITTING IN CROWDED CAFÉ AL-HUSSEIN DISTRICT AT NIGHT
  • Embargoed: 21st November 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Health,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA14KPSFARSP7NKDHNVLJ1DUAIJ
  • Story Text: For many people both inside and outside of Egypt, the sheesha, an elegant waterpipe usually smoked with fruit-scented tobacco, is a cultural institution synonymous with languid nights out in sidewalk cafes.
    But that institution is suddenly disappearing, with fears of the spread of the swine flu [H1N1] virus leading to a partial government ban on sheesha smoking in parts of the country.
    The ban has even hit cafes in the historic al-Hussein district and Khan al-Khalili bazaar where tourists often come just to take part in this particularly Middle Eastern habit while they take in the rich local atmosphere.
    Cafes that are usually packed with visitors and locals alike now sit largely empty, and café owners are at their wits end, sympathetic to the government's desire to protect public safety, but also struggling to makemeet.
    "Foreigners come because of the sheesha. And there are foreigners who don't smoke sheesha but who like to have sheeshas out on the table, if there is a group of say twenty people, and who consider it a beautiful 'show' when they visit Khan al-Khalili. So they banned sheesha and as a reslut, customers are coming, not finding sheesha and leaving," said the manager of the Abu Mazen café, Abu Abdullah.
    There have been inconsistencies in the enforcement of the government's ban, with many districts in Cairo still serving sheesha. As a result, says Abu Abdullah, the customers simply go elsewhere.
    "That sheeshas are available on Gameat Dawal al-Arabiya street, and in a lot of places, so the customer comes and says, 'well, lets go to Gameat Dawal al-Arabiya'. I have 22 workers, and ten of them are at home. I can't pay their salaries," he said.
    The al-Hussein district, which was built during the Mamluk period over half a millennium ago, is an open air museum of historic mosques and houses that shelter the warren of shop-filled alleys that make up the Khan al-Khalili bazaar.
    The tourists are still coming to shop here, sometimes for sheeshas to take back home - but ironically, they can no longer smoke in a place where sheesha has been imbibed as long as anyone can remember.
    With incidence of swine flu spiking in Egypt, the government is taking no chances, even targeting an age old custom that brings in money from tourists, one of Egypt's main sources of revenue.
    "We are used to coming to Al-Hussein to smoke sheesha. I mean forget that we have sheesha in our own neighborhoods. We're used to smoking sheesha, and I walked all around and found that none of the cafes have sheesha," says one sheesha afficiando.
    Also hard hit by the ban is one of the main attractions in al-Hussein -- the famous al-Fishawy coffee shop, built in 1798, and once frequented by luminaries like King Farouk and nobel prize winning author Naguib Mahfouz.
    Many of the chairs in the usually packed café are now empty and the owners are not sure when the crowds will return.
    But some of the tourists who were there were happy with the change.
    "I think this way is better. I mean there is not a lot of smoke, you couldn't breathe. If the person in front of you is smoking sheesha, a lot smoke comes out and you can't breathe, so that disturbs other people," said Osama Tarawi.
    British tourist Nikki is used to smoke-free public places in England and said Egypt's new ruling makes a nice break from her experience in other Arab countries.
    "I personally would probably leave it, cause we've been to plenty of places in other Middle Eastern countries where people have been smoking and myself and my sister don't really like that so we would not have been here had there been smoke," she said.
    However many Egyptians and tourists are not yet used to the idea, and for the moment, El-Fishawy café owner Ahmed Metwally is not sure how to make up for the loss in income the ban has caused.
    "First of all it has impacted us economically, it has impacted the workers, it has had an impact on the people who work manufacturing sheeshas, it has had an immediate impact. And very noticeable at that, a significant drop has taken place," he said.
    Scenes of sheesha smoking is now a thing of the past and with the practice gone, cafe owners will have to find a new way to entice customers into their establishments to keep up revenues and smokers will have to find new venues where they can socialise over a pipe and forget their day's trials and tribulations.
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