Egypt’s second largest city Alexandria that sprawls along the Mediterranean coastline has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years following decades of neglect but will a recent ban on public shisha-smoking turn out to be a setback?
Just 15 years ago, this once glittering resort favored by Egyptians and holidaymakers from all over the region looked drab, dirty and rundown. Architecturally beautiful buildings flanking the seafront were covered with layers of dingy grime. Cafes, traditionally the province of males, looked as though they needed a good scrub.
The streets were strewn with litter or, in some cases, punctuated with hills of rotting garbage. The city’s miles of beachfront offered few facilities in terms of deckchairs, parasols and cafes.
Ten years ago, there was little for the visitor to do in this legendary and once cosmopolitan city, apart from doing the rounds of guidebook tourist attractions such as the 15th century Citadel of Qaitbey, King Farouk’s Palace and gardens in Montazah, the Abu Al-Abbas Mosque, a labyrinth of ancient cisterns and a second-century Roman amphitheater.
There were few decent places to eat-out besides mid-20th century fish restaurants that had seen better days and grills with lamb carcasses decorating their facades. The Greek cafes that were popular haunts in their heyday had little to offer apart from the fading splendor of their interiors. And as far as I recall, there was only one decent-sized rather higgledy-piggledy supermarket.
It was no wonder that the well-heeled tourists stopped coming, preferring the allure of more glamorous Red Sea resorts such as Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada. Then everything changed.
Alexandria’s former governor, Abdel Salam El-Mahgoub, completely transformed the city from a second-rate, sad-looking resort into a vibrant modern city in just nine years. He widened the Corniche from two lanes to four and partnered with the business community to improve infrastructure, build bridges, create green spaces and beautify buildings. The opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina that occurred on his watch thrust the city onto the global stage.
Since, Alexandria has emerged like a Phoenix from the ashes. It’s an entirely different place infused with renewed optimism and energy. New five-star hotels have opened up, along with luxury mega malls, hundreds of alfresco Italian-style cafes, American fast-food chains and smart restaurants serving Egyptian and international cuisine.
Today, Alexandria’s Corniche is lined with palm trees, its beaches colorful with bright umbrellas and Hawaiian-style snack bars. Needless to say the tourists are back and in greater numbers than ever before. Nowadays, the place is jam-packed with visitors and residents out and about queuing for ice cream, munching on corn-on-the-cob or enjoying a café latte between puffs of an apple-flavored shisha (water pipe) in the company of family or friends. Well . . . that was true until last week. When I drove along the seafront yesterday, Alexandria almost had the air of a ghost town. Cafes that were crowded to overflowing some days ago were almost deserted. A total ban on shisha within the entire Alexandria governorate, imposed last week, has had a devastating effect on the resort’s ambience. After all, for centuries Alexandria and shisha have gone together like a horse and carriage. It’s part of the city’s culture and heritage.
On every sizable street in the poorer areas, there are tens of shisha cafes where working-class men sip sweet tea while playing dominos or backgammon. Those places are like miniature men’s clubs; places where people go to forget their problems and socialize with their buddies at prices they can afford. Elsewhere, upmarket shisha cafes attract students, businessmen, professionals and middle-class families.
Local officials have lined-up behind the ban and are giving newspaper interviews mainly citing health reasons for their enthusiastic support. In addition, some of them maintain men should be at home with their wives and children rather than spending their free time in cafes, while others say shisha encourages fraternization between young men and women or lures students away from their studies.
Yet others take the view that endless rows of shisha-puffers everywhere one looks ruin the city’s image. If you want to smoke shisha, do it at home, they say.
I can’t argue that those views don’t hold water but there is another side to the story. Yesterday, I asked an acquaintance who’s a policeman what he thought of the ban. He’s absolutely hopping mad. He told me that smoking shisha is the only pleasure he enjoys in life besides watching football on TV because there’s nothing else he can afford. He’s also angry that the ban doesn’t apply to hotels which are licensed by the Ministry of Tourism. This means that anyone who can afford exorbitant hotel prices can still go out for an apple or apricot water pipe.
Unemployment is also going to increase as cafes begin sacking tens of thousands connected with shisha-preparation and serving. It’s also very likely that cafes reliant upon shisha for their income will close down forever. In some cases, such cafes are over a century-old, representing a part of Alexandria’s history.
As for the argument that shisha-lovers are free to indulge their habit within the confines of their own homes, this really doesn’t make good sense. Many Alexandrians live in small, overcrowded apartments without a balcony. Smoking at home would not only present a fire hazard but could also make passive smokers out of children and asthma-sufferers. It may be too that some fans of shisha will simply switch to cigarettes.
During coming months, it will be interesting to see whether this lovely Egyptian town can continue on its up-and-up trajectory without its hallmark shisha. How will the economy be impacted and will the tourists keep coming?
Personally, I’m sick of the sterility that is slowly infecting the Middle East that used to be redolent with the aroma of spices, chickens roasting on a spit, freshly-ground Turkish coffee, exotic perfumes — and, yes, shisha. Without it Alexandrians may become healthier but will they be happier? As always, time will tell.