Jordanian Girls, Smoking Kills You and Spares the Boys

In Jordan, Opinion on February 11, 2008 at 10:44 am

Al Rai has graced its e-pages with a fascinating mix of science,90’s Jordanian culture, sexism, and mere retardedness courtesy of a certain Rania Tadrus.

Tadrus has sort of put together an article about smoking women in Jordan and how they are no longer embarrassed by the fact that they smoke, how they smoke in public and how they flaunt this once-taboo behavior with complete freedom.

So far so good. But then the article proceeds to quoting the most ridiculous statements such as these:

وتوضح ان الانفتاح وتوجه الفتيات نحو الدخان -سواء كان سيجارة أو ارجلية - يعود الى التأثر بالثقافات الاخرى، ويرتبط بعلو الأصوات التي تنادي بتحرر المرأة، خصوصا في ظل ثورة المعلومات .
وتتابع التدخين أمام العائلة خارج وداخل المنزل بات مؤشرا لاتجاه المجتمع نحو قيم وعادات غريبة بعيدة عن ثقافتنا العربية .

and

ولأخطر من ذلك وفق الدكتورة أيوب أن نضوج الفتاة يكتمل عند سن 25 عاما، فإذا بدأت التدخين في سن مراهقة متأخر تكون النتيجة حسب الدراسات العلمية، حدوث مشاكل في نضوج ونمو الجزء الأمامي من الدماغ، الذي يتحكم بالتصرفات والسلوكيات ،وطبعا هذا يفسر التصرفات غير المقبولة منهن .

and

ويحذر من خطورة الارجلية على أجسام النساء ويصفها بأنها موضة آخذة في الانتشار على نطاق واسع رغم خطورتها بسبب احتوائها على الملونات والأصباغ في المعسل وعدم الاحتراق الكامل ما يعد احد اسباب السرطانات

and the worst bit

اما مديرة مجموعة لينا للإبداع التربوي/ برنامج مكافحة التدخين ماويا حمّاد فتفسر إقبال النساء على التدخين لأسباب أساسية أهمها غياب التشريعات والعقوبات الفعّالة ،وكذلك سهولة الحصول عليها من حيث البيع وتواجدها في كل محل تقريبا ، إضافة إلى غياب القدوة الحسنة فالام تدخن مع بناتها وكذلك الأب عندما يطلب من ابنته اعداد الارجلية له

To sum it up, it turns out that smoking is a Western habit that Jordanian women are picking up, it causes them to behave in unacceptable ways if they pick it up before 25, it is a problem that is directly related to the increasing awareness of women’s rights, Narguile is a dangerous trend that is infesting women’s bodies with diseases, AND according to Mawya Hammad women who smoke do so because there are no regulations enforced to prevent them and because they have ready access to cigarettes coupled with lack of guidance.

I felt like I am living in the Middle Ages after reading that article, or perhaps back in the times where clerics and philosophers pondered the question of The Woman and if she has a soul. To have an article written by a woman, and featured like that in a national newspaper, is a scandal to Jordanian journalism I believe.

If the article is about smoking women in Jordan, who represent a 19% segment of our feminine population, then it should be unbiased and unsexist to say the least. Unless, of course, it aims to bash this segment, which it basically does.

I am amazed at the absence of a single word mentioning Jordanian male smokers. What is the percentage of that segment, do you think? (my guess is 50%+) How come all the negativity is directed at female smokers (Western habits, unacceptable behavior, no regulations, no guidance, etc) ?

Granted, smoking is not good for your health. I don’t care if you are a woman or a man or a goat, it will kill you eventually. I just find it absurd that this article would so portray women as if they are children who have been let out by accident and who are picking bad habits in the absence of parental control.

If an article of the same genre was written about male smokers in Jordan, would it have mentioned that they “have ready access to cigarettes” and “lack of guidance” and that they have adopted it as awareness of men’s rights started to emerge in Jordan, and with the same tone of this article? I very much doubt it.

It upsets me that even articles that fall under the “raising awareness” genre stoop to such a low level of sexism in this country. The sheer amount of bashing women smokers not because they smoke but because they are women who smoke in our society is outrageous. These articles mix science with witchcraft, so to speak.

These articles do not raise awareness as much as they raise anger and a feeling of inferiority in women. Why else would they be signaled out like that and a supposedly scientific article would mention their taboo behavior and quote people who say they are breaking with Jordan’s culture and traditions? I daresay the amount of anger this article has produced in me might push me to burn a packet today.

Now where’s that awareness it was supposed to raise?

▶ View 12 Comments

I agree with ya… one statement I’ve often heard and find infuriating is "The sight of a woman smoking is inappropriate, and damaging to her reputation." I often thought that social perceptions of women and their manners and reputation are very much centered around the hymen, so I don’t quite understand this connection between smoking and female immorality. 

Lina 11 February 2008 at 1pm
Calm down Tol, ‘se7tek bel denya’ no need to burn a packet you’ll hurt yourself only!!
To be frank am only with the part saying “ويرتبط بعلو الأصوات التي تنادي بتحرر المرأة،” unfortunately many of the smoking girls (especially college girls) smoke only to confirm that they are free to do whatever they want, although they don’t really enjoy nor need nor savor smoking itself, and the worst, some of them smoke just for imitation or kinda ‘kol mamnoo3 mar3’oob’.
I dunno if it’s about sexism, but if I believe the percentage of smoking males is the same for many many years, but the percentage of smoking females has multiply rapidly in the few past years, and you can ask any aged about how censured it was in the old days to see a girl smokes in public (if there was any). So I believe it’s more like a generation’s differences rather than sexism.
At the end that doesn’t really count, the point is (as you mentioned) smoking is a very bad habit for anyone in any age, sex, healthy status…etc
No matter who you are you should NOT smoke or at least consider quitting.

Abdullah 11 February 2008 at 1pm
thank you for not being self rightous about smoking like … mr.abdullah’s comment :P you know what this reminded me off ? articles and new items of 1940’s america and how they dealt with the issue. it is eerily similar language, reasons and the whole nine yards … the only thing missing here is the suggestions that reason they are more smokers is 2ibti3adhom 3an 2il deen 

bambam 11 February 2008 at 1pm
Abdullah,

unfortunately many of the smoking girls (especially college girls) smoke only to confirm that they are free to do whatever they want

I don’t know about Jordan, but it’s always been said in teh US that teenagers start smoking because they think it’s cool. That goes for males and females both. I agree it’s a very unhealthy habit, and it certainly shouldn’t be encouraged, but… I don’t really see the differences in why guys smoke or why girls smoke, or why it should be considered acceptable for one but not the other. I think when I was a kid, more women in the US smoked than men. That may still be the case, I haven’t seen stats lately. 

Craig 11 February 2008 at 2pm
I forgot to mention that smoking is not new to Jordanian culture. Many old women in Karak and in my extended family (even on my mother’s Circassian side) are heavy smokers.
I know smoking is bad but I always find pleasure in watching an 80 year old woman with green tattoos on her chin and in her traditional madraga, sitting infront of her house in a Karaki village, smoking like there is no tomorrow. I think it’s potentially the only manifestation of women’s power, and freedom of choice, in a culture that heavily oppresses them. I love that sight.

Tololy 11 February 2008 at 2pm
you are very right to be furious about the stupidity and mentality that article showed. I do not want to add more to what you said.
we all (should) agree that smoking is a bad habit, equally for males and females. the HE is no better than the SHE in the social dilemmas of "3eeb w fadi7a". That’s ofcourse, without even starting on it’s no ones business if anyone decides to smoke or not. 

lubna 11 February 2008 at 2pm
As a life long non-smoker I just love travelling now as most countries have smoking bans in hotels, restaurants, offices etc etc - wonderful!!!  Smoking is a very selfish habit as it affects not only the smoker but all those around them.  I totally resent going to a restaurant and coming home smelling like an ash tray and having to inhale all the filth that other people are blowing out.  I also hate going to the hairdresser where women seem to smoke with impunity and the owner’s helpless to enforce a ban.  I always ask, politely, if they would not mind smoking until I have left and usually the answer is polite and the cigarette put out.

T 11 February 2008 at 3pm
Tololy, Just like its women who are going to bring women up from the low position they hold in society’s eyes, it is women who also keep us down. Its no surprise that a woman wrote this article. Women are our number one oppressors to women– we keep each other down, we don’t support each other, we always side with the men because its what we’re trained to do. I went to college in Egypt and they were having student union elections and mentioned that not once has there ever been a FEMALE student union president.. then they asked people why that is, and many women responded, i wouldn’t vote for a girl i don’t think she’d do a good job. SO there you go. we need to change women’s minds before we can change women’s place in society. its not about the men anymore and what they do to us, its what we do to each other :( 

Maha 12 February 2008 at 11am
can you possibly email this article to rania whatever-her-name-is? and do attach an article about self-appreciation.

Farah 12 February 2008 at 12pm
That article is truly absurd! My 69 year old mom would tell me how her Grandmother used to smoke a pipe. My aunt who passed away over 10 years ago wouldn’t even start her day without a cigarette and a cup of strong turkish coffee, I remember when she’d visit us I used to put an ashtray next to her pillow. I’m not saying smoking is not bad for your health, but to suggest that women who smoke are some how morally inferior is just outright outrageous! 

oleander 12 February 2008 at 6pm
It is not about smoking, it’s about this endless loop of degrading women. My best advice: Don’t get upset over this. We need hundreds of years to start thinking like humans, so live your life well and teach your future children to think positively and logically. 

Lulu 12 February 2008 at 10pm
You guys did not even get the idea behind this article, and why the first action you always take is jump to the throat of the writers and not look behind the words?? It’s a cry out from the journalist talking about women, and not men, it’s all about women and them adopting this ugly disgusting deadly habit, men are half of the society, but women’s bare half of the society and get married to the other half, so the influence of the woman is way bigger than men.

 
We do live in a male dominated society, in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Jordan</place></country-region> the man dominates and in away women’s adapting to so many behaviors sadly harm their not only health but image also, where is the wisdom behind adapting to those behaviors?? And yes most girls we talk to or work with especially school and univ girls use the same excuses “all smoke, and if the boys dose it why cant we”??!!!! Haaaa  common give me a break, l feel women do not have a choice in caring for their bodies and image also they got a huge responsibility , because

 
اعددتها اعددت شعبا طيب الاعراق" "الام مدرسة اذا


 

 
When rania asked me why l feel girls smokes in Jordan, my answer were it’s the same as boys, they got access to cig, they do not have enough role models  around them to guide them and there is no enforcement of the laws from the 1972 till now…… and above all l feel women  in jordan are not aware of the fact that being a female puts them when they smoke at risks men are not exposed to, for example they are at increased risks of heart attack and stroke especially if they on the bills, and in mother-to-be smokes she runs an increased risk of unsuccessful pregnancy, add to that , her child is likely to be born under-weight  not to forget that smoking reduces fertility.

 
Again its not related to expose women more than its related to exposing the act and the fact that  most studies and statistics  focusing on men  ignoring the alarming  trend these days that girls adopting to this deadly habit yajama3ah, at least this is what l got from the article, J 

 
Peace …….

 

 

 

 

mawya 13 February 2008 at 10pm

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