Female hookah smokers harassed

[jjmuneer]

By Salih Waladbagi

More women smoke hookah, although it is a cultural taboo



Smoking hookah is a new phenomenon among Kurdish girls and women, especially teens in Kurdistan. While women smoking cigarettes is a cultural taboo, more women seem to be taking up the hookah. Neither form of smoking is socially acceptable in Kurdistan.

Some women claim that they smoke hookah or shisha to attract men. Others say they started smoking and have become addicted.
Jwan Hassan, 27, said many teenage girls like to smoke hookah to attract boys. Teen girls want boys to look at them, and smoking hookah one way to attract their attention.

Hassan talks about when she first started smoking hookah. ?I was 11 years old when I first imitated my mother and began smoking cigarettes.? She said many boys watched her when she smoked cigarettes. ?But now there are many women cigarette smokers, so no one paid attention to me. Smoking hookah feels much cooler, clean and even soothing. This is the best way to attract attention in the bars,? she said.

Truska Zewar, 25, lives in Erbil. She recalls her life after she began smoking hookah when she lived Baghdad, Iraq?s capital. ?My friends and I went to hookah bars and restaurants to smoke hookah. After my family came to Erbil, I continued smoking it. I have still two Arab women friends who meet at night hookah bars,? she said.

Some teenage girls go to hookah bars without their family?s knowledge. Chinar Muhammed, 21, smokes hookah and goes to bars with her friend. ?I come to the hookah bars almost always with my Arab female friends. But I don?t tell my parents and brothers. I will be in trouble if my family knows I smoke hookah,? she said.

Muhammed also said boys constantly harass girls in the bars. ?Boys ask for cell phone numbers and even sometimes they try to harass females physically inside the hookah bars,? she said. She said she was harassed in bars but she became addicted to hookah and cannot give it up.

Maida Omer, 27, an Arab from Baghdad, lives in Erbil. She used to smoke cigarettes but gave them up and started smoking hookah. ?Hookah is not less toxic than cigarettes. It has many negative effects on health, but many don?t know this,? said Omer, whose name has been changed to protect her identity.

Omer?s doctor told her that smoking hookah is dangerous because smoking one hookah a night is equal to a pack of cigarettes.
As the negative effects of tobacco become more widely known, many are still drawn to it. Hookah is no safer than cigarettes and has the same health consequences.

Because public awareness is becoming better, it is becoming less acceptable for women, especially pregnant women. Tobacco use has damaging effects on the fetus.

?Smoking hookah has economic consequences. I have had spent nearly 40,000 Iraqi dinars [approximately $33] each night with my friends because I paid around 7,000 Iraqi dinars per hookah,? said Omer.

Some women believe it is a foreign custom that has been brought to Kurdish society. Shokahn Mahmood says it doesn?t accord with Kurdish culture, adding that smoking hookah is simply unconsciously imitating of Arab culture.

The owner of Safeer Cafe, in Ankawa, a predominantly Christian area, says Kurdish girls are imitating Arab girls and come to the cafe to smoke hookah. He said smoking hookah has gained popularity in the past few years among females, especially among teenagers.

Jwan Kamal, a social analyst, believes Kurdish women are starting to imitate Arab and foreign cultures. ?Kurdish society has its own cultural taboos that don?t allow smoking hookah in front of strange men in bars. If a woman smokes hookah in the hookah bar, it means she has insulted herself and her family and they are almost always harassed by men and face social problems,? Kamal said.

Some claim women who are harassed in hookah bars may go on to become prostitutes. Kamal additionally said smoking hookah may damage women?s psychology and they may become addicted if they visit hookah bars regularly.

Hana Osman, a doctor of women?s diseases, said hookah is smoother than cigarettes, but more harmful. ?The water in the hookah doesn?t filter out the toxic ingredients of the tobacco, so it is no less toxic than cigarettes. Many people get contagious diseases from the hookah mouthpieces that other smokers use,? said Osman.

Those who smoke hookah inhale a large volume of tobacco smoke, deeper and longer than a cigarette, in a smoking session. Smoking hookah has negative effects on a smoker?s lung. It is also dangerous for pregnant women and the health of their fetus.

Hookah comes from Middle Eastern countries. Some hookah tobacco contains herbs, flavorings or molasses. The fruit-flavored hookah tobacco is especially attractive to teens.


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