Gasp! A shisha ban in Cairo?

Shisha is ever present in Egyptian life, such as at this local party in Abousiyya, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Cairo.

By Patrick Friedel

The temperature is dropping in Cairo, and the sneezing and coughing Cairenes are all concerned about the Swine Flu (H1N1).

That's understandable. It takes only one visit to Cairo to realize it is a petri dish of germs. The transportation system is at a breaking point, garbage litters the streets, and the countless coffee shops offer passed-around shisha pipes to their patrons.

Egypt's government is hardly in a position to offer a solution to the first two problems, but they are attempting to manage the latter issue by prohibiting shisha at public cafes. (Editor's note: The Egyptian government could be said to have contributed to the overflowing trash problem by culling its population of garbage-eating pigs, in response to swine flu fears. -Evan)

Shisha is a staple of Egyptian culture. It is flavored tobacco that is smoked through a water pipe. There are many flavors, but most cafes offer only two brands: light Apple flavored tobacco and maasil. Maasil is for the hardcore lot only. It is unflavored and packs a wallop. You have been warned.

As far as I can tell, the ban started last Tuesday and is only in effect on the main streets - particularly downtown. Those café owners able to afford bribing the police do so, and those that cannot are closing shop. Unfortunately, my favorite café, Mushrebeya, falls into the latter category and has shut down. The owner told me it will renovate and reopen as a tourism agency.

Great, I thought. I am losing my favorite watering hole and getting another tourism agency. There are already three agencies doing business across the street.

It has been hard to get a solid beat on the shisha situation here. No shop owner wants to tell their customers that there will not be shisha available, or that the police are enforcing a ban. Shisah is their livelihood. As a result, it has been difficult to understand what the government is doing and how the shops are handling the situation.

The Egyptian daily, Al Ahram, has yet to report anything regarding the ban.

If the ban is enforced, it would do wonders to prevent the spread of H1N1. Most cafes only give a cursory pipe-water change after each use, leaving all those germs from previous users readily available for the next smoker.

The drawbacks are numerous, though. The innumerable cafes across Egypt will suffer a large drop in business. More generally, this is a problem because shisha is a cultural cornerstone of Cairene life. It is more than habit-forming drug; it is a social release valve for the deluge of under/unemployed Egyptian men. I wonder how this will affect the temperament of the local men and young men in such a desperate economic time.

I hope to learn more about this issue and its impact. In the meantime, I am stocking-up on shisha coals and tobacco. Otherwise, it is going to be a long winter in Cairo.

Friedel is a 2007 graduate of the University of Iowa, studied abroad at the American University in Cairo from 2005-06 and recently returned to Cairo to study Arabic.