Saudi- Women's sheesha logic: Puff away blues and look 'cool'

(MENAFN- Arab News) ABHA: While many smokers say that they can't quit and others complain of no will power some admit to smoking because it is seen as fashionable.
It seems that sheesha and cigarettes have become the latest fashion accessory at women's gatherings where smoking is seen as necessary.
Psychologists and sociologists say that the increasing number of women who smoke for perceived social prestige is alarming.
An official at Naqa a charitable organization specializing in combating smoking said more Saudi women than men smoke sheesha. He pointed out that the ages of smoking women is between 30 and 40 adding that large numbers of married women smoke sheesha. He explained that the situation has become alarming as it expands to different regions in the Kingdom.
Suleiman Al-Sabi a spokesman for the Anti-Smoking Association said that the rate of smoking among Saudi women had increased to 7 percent since the beginning of 2014. In 2010 the rate was estimated at 4-5 percent.
Men smokers were estimated at 22 percent with 27 percent of them having started smoking at the age of 10.
'The largest proportion of smoking Saudi women live in urban areas such as Riyadh Jeddah and Alkhobar' he said.
He explained that per capita consumption per day is 35 cigarettes in a country that annually imports 55992 tons of tobacco and molasses ranking the Kingdom 23rd in the world in tobacco consumption. Gulf countries record 30000 deaths each year linked to smoking.
Naqa Chairman Mohammed bin Jabr Al-Yamani says more women smoke sheesha than cigarettes noting that smoking sheesha is seen as a social habit.
Al-Yamani explained that Saudi Arabia is ranked fifth in the world in proportion of women adult smokers after France the US Italy and South Africa.
Dr. Mona Al-Sawwaf head of the department of psychiatry at King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah and a UN international expert in addiction treatment said the social smoking phenomenon among young women is not new but is starting to surface now as women are allowed to smoke in public places.
'Many women believe that smoking shows their freedom which is totally the wrong concept' she said.
Despite the lack of accurate and documented data in the Arab world Dr. Al-Sawwaf said that global statistics indicate the spread of smoking as an addiction.