Case study: ‘Where will the people go if my shisha cafe closes?’

Ahmad Azaam, a shisha cafe owner from Egypt, is worried about his business if the rules come into force.

ABU DHABI // Ahmad Azaam manages one of the many neighbourhood shisha cafes in Al Khalidiya.

The Egyptian comes from a country where shisha smoking is a cultural staple.

“People come here in the morning, smoke and sit a bit,” said Mr Azaam, who has run Al Noukhada Cafe for five years.

“They come back at night, too. People are inside the cafe all the time. If the cafe closes, where will people go?”

The cafe is in a residential area and about 150 to 200 people visit each day, many of them regulars.

Staff at cafes in the area have been discussing the laws, said Mr Azaam. But many are unsure of what will happen.

Some think their business will have to close, he said, but Egypt tried to pass laws restricting shisha use and they did not work.

Now he and others with cafes are waiting to see what happens.

He doubted he could reopen in another location in Abu Dhabi that would meet the new requirements.

And he said it would be hard to justify staying open until 3am – three hours past the new limit – without serving shisha.

One major aim of the rules is to deter smoking among young people by keeping shisha away from schools, which Mr Azaam described as a good thing.

A report by the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, a World Health Organisation initiative, found that water pipe smoking was increasing dramatically, especially among Arab youth, and it has now replaced cigarettes as the most common form of tobacco use.

In the UAE, shisha smoking among those aged 13 to 15 is far higher than the use of cigarettes.

Government figures show that about a quarter of all deaths in the UAE are directly linked to smoking-related illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

But Mr Azaam said the laws did not make sense because they restricted shisha smoking indoors.

“If a person wants to smoke shisha, they need to go to a coffee shop,” said Mr Azaam.

“If people are sitting inside, no one will see them, especially children.”