Heat on for Egyptian smokers

Some 40% of Egyptian men smoke

By Khaled Dawoud in Cairo

After two decades, a campaign by journalists and health officials to cut smoking in Egypt may finally be bearing fruit.

Cigarettes provide government income

This week the Minister of Health, Ismail Sallam, declared that the ministry should only hire and promote non-smokers.

As the ministry supposed to look people's health, its members should set the public a good example, he said.

Although it is unclear when this order will take effect, it is the strongest sign yet that the government is serious about reducing smoking, which official figures show is practised by 40% of Egyptian men and 8% of Egyptian women.

Grounds for divorce

But there have been other indications too.

A few days ago, smoking was banned at Cairo airport except in designated areas. The authorities said passengers and airport employees would be fined $15 if found smoking outside these areas.

Signs of change

Health ministry recruitment policy

Ban in schools and colleges

Cairo airport restrictions

Divorce ruling

The minister of education has also banned smoking in schools and universities, in order to set a good example.

And most remarkable of all, the country's highest Muslim official, Mufti Nasser Farid Wassel, recently stunned Egyptians by announcing that wives could seek a divorce if they felt that their husbands' smoke was damaging their health.

The Mufti also asked mosque preachers to tell worshippers that smoking was against Islam which banned anything that caused harm to human beings.

Restrictions ignored

So far, however, such pronouncements have had little effect.

No wives rushed to seek a divorce after the mufti's ruling, many doctors continue to smoke in their clinics and public bus drivers are usually the first to violate the non-smoking sign in their vehicles.

Islam bans anything damaging to the health

Members of the anti-smoking campaign say that there are already many laws that restrict smoking in Egypt.

What is lacking, they believe, is a sense of public awareness that smoking is really harmful, and that there is a danger from what is now known as passive smoking.

They also question the government's commitment to implementing the restrictions.

However, there have been a few signs of improvement.

Fancy restaurants and five-star hotels all now have areas separating smokers from non-smokers.

The national airline company, EgyptAir, has banned smoking on all flights under two hours.

Some smokers believe that the bad quality of government-made cigarettes also encourages people to quit smoking.

Government revenue

Yet they remain an important source of income for the government, with a mere 3% price rise generating a huge boost in revenue.

Smokers say pollution is more damaging than cigarettes

Those leading the anti-smoking campaign want a ban on cigarette advertisements in newspapers, following a similar ban on television in the late 1970s.

They also want to prevent international cigarette brands from sponsoring sports or musical events.

But many smokers in Egypt argue that the government's efforts are misdirected.

They say that the buses which puff black fumes into pedestrians' faces everyday, and the hundreds of factories located in residential areas kill more Egyptians than cigarettes.