By Mohammad Ghazal

AMMAN - Mohammad Al Sheikh cannot wait for iftar, not for the food itself, but for the entertainment that follows.

After breaking the fast, he rushes to join his friends at a Ramadan tent, where they smoke hubbly bubbly and play cards, backgammon and dominos all night.

Sheikh is one of thousands of young people, who frequent Ramadan tents in Amman and throughout the Kingdom, which are erected by coffee shops to provide people, youth in particular, with a place to chat and enjoy their favourite pastimes.

These tents offer a wide variety of Ramadan drinks, particularly sugary juices such as qamar el din (made from pressed apricot paste) and tamr hindi (tamarind), as well as Ramadan deserts like qatayef (pancakes filled with cheese and nuts).

However, the most popular item on the menu is the hubbly bubbly (water pipe), also known as argileh or shishah, which is served in a wide variety of tobacco flavours including liquorice, apple, watermelon, lemon, mint, grape, cherry, strawberry and blends.

“I cannot wait to go to a Ramadan tent every evening after iftar,” Sheikh told The Jordan Times.

“I go to the tent to play cards and meet with friends, but the number one priority for me is to smoke argileh in the tent, where my friends and I stay until it’s time for sohour,” he added.

Khalid Malawani, who joined his friends at a Ramadan tent last Friday, was just as enthusiastic.

“Having argileh after iftar is a great deal of fun. I rarely smoke it during the rest of the year, but in Ramadan I have argileh almost everyday. I also enjoy playing cards and backgammon with my colleagues,” he said.

Waiters at several coffee shops in the capital said the popularity of argileh increases “greatly” in Ramadan.

“Demand on argileh triples in Ramadan. Some young people who come to the Ramadan tents order argileh just to try it,” one waiter in a neighbourhood in west Amman told The Jordan Times.

But Bassem Hijjawi, director of the disease control department at the Health Ministry, expressed concern about the spike in demand for argileh, explaining that smoking the water pipe is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes.

“The tobacco in cigarettes is treated and purified. But there are no specifications for tobacco used in argileh. There is no control over making argileh in tents as well,” he said.

“Materials that are used to flavour the tobacco turn into chemicals when burned, and are harmful to health and might cause cancer,” Hijjawi added.

Health experts say that smoking argileh for an hour-and-a-half is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes, while World Health Organisation studies have proven that some diseases, such as tuberculosis, can be transmitted by smoking argileh.

“If more than one person smokes argileh from the same pipe, which is sometimes not changed for a long time, infectious diseases may be transmitted and infect others,” warned Hijjawi.

He said the ministry will prohibit smoking in public places starting early next year, an ordinance that will be strictly enforced.

Recent studies show that Jordanians spent JD350 million on cigarettes last year as well as JD80 million on medicines to combat smoking-relating illnesses.

A study released last year by the Communication Partnership for Family Health in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, revealed that the number of male teenage smokers leaps from 6 per cent among 15-year olds to 32 per cent of 19-year olds.

There are no clear figures on the number of argileh smokers in the country.