While opening the clinic, the director of the Anti-Smoking Program in Najran announced that the clinic is aimed at providing treatment to non-Saudi women smokers in the region. He also pointed out that young Saudi women in the region do not smoke.

This report poses a big question mark. The opening of a clinic may be a matter that concerns the Ministry of Health, but our problem is that some of us still behave in a way that hides the reality, even though this is obvious even for those who have vision problems.

The dangerous predicament is that some negative phenomena are spreading while our society and its institutions deny their very existence. For instance, the abuse of drugs would not have spread to such an extent had it been uncovered from the very beginning. We ignored those using drugs for a while. As a result, the abuse of drugs began to gain ground with some of our young women also becoming involved.

There has also been a steady increase in the number of those using drugs among men. This is evident from reports about the abuse of drugs as well as increasing news about drug seizures.

I do not want to hide the negativities of our society. Rather, they should be dealt with clearly and strongly. Smoking is widespread among our young women. Similar is the case with hookahs. It is unfortunate that some of our women even use them in public. Smoking is no longer done inside closed rooms. It has, instead, become open and done in public.

Perhaps it is the case that some smokers believe that smoking is a part of progress. Some others may think that it is a sign of freedom and being liberal. Others have the perception that it is part of self-affirmation.

Whatever may be the reasons, the reality is that it is a widespread phenomenon among Saudi women. Hence, it is essential to expand anti-smoking clinics to cover the treatment of young Saudi men and women smokers. This is simply to safeguard their rights also.

We should not, at least, deny the existence of this problem as well as its spread among young Saudi women, especially women university students and secondary school students. There are statistics and reports affirming this.

It is our duty to open clinics to provide treatment to our young women smokers. We must have the determination to confront the menace vigorously and not at all with shyness.