By Muhammad Al-Hassani
Okaz
LATEST statistics show that a high percentage of girls and women has taken up the habit of smoking. Some of them are still adolescents. This disease is common among intermediate and secondary level students.
These girls are like freshly bloomed flowers. Their smoking habits are usually done without the knowledge of their families. But theme park visitors in Jeddah have started talking about young girls who smoke «Shisha» with the family and in public, where each one sits independently and smokes while watching those passing by. These girls are happy because they feel that this was an achievement liberating them from social constraints and they take people›s stares as impressive looks at the strength of their character for doing what they are doing!
What visitors of Jeddah›s parks referred to I have seen before in the amusement parks and restaurants that offer diverse dishes to families and respond to requests from family members, whether male or female, for Shisha whether in apples or peaches or grapes until it became normal in the public places in respectable cities where smoking is not allowed of any kind.
Even the proportion of women smokers in Western countries is very small because they perceive that smoking is against female›s beauty standards especially if they are to retain a white and bright smile. How can they do that if their teeth turn yellow until they become like female hyena. How then can we explain the involvement of teenage girls and young women and women in smoking, which is one of the worst habits and the most dangerous to human health, knowing that the impact of nicotine will damage the girl›s health and may eliminate her opportunity to get married unless to someone who has the same smoking habits? And how many divorces have taken place because the woman insists on smoking while the husband believes that this is evidence of a corrupt upbringing and that her relationship to smoking is a dilemma, especially if he cannot persuade her to change it.
And how will such a «mother» deal with her young children if she is governed by her smoker›s mood while carrying her child in one hand and smoking with the other like what some men do with their babies. An awareness campaign on the issue was launched — but was suspended a while ago — wherein the father holds his child with one hand and smokes with the other while the child says, «Do not kill me, Dad.» Instead of having successful attempts as a society and institutions in convincing smokers of the dangers of smoking and those around them, women and girls have started practicing the habit in public places without anyone condemning the acts.
