JEDDAH, 18 December 2003 — Hubbly-bubbly smokers as young as 13 come to the Village Cafe and Shisha Lounge next to the Atallah Amusement Park on Jeddah’s Corniche.
Because it is close to the amusement park, boys too young to drive can simply walk across when they are visiting the amusement park and order a variety of flavors of shisha.
Staff and management seem unconcerned that the children come here to smoke.
Fahd, 13, came here with a group of friends aged 13 to 17. “The driver drops me and my sisters off at the park,” he told Arab News. “After I finish the rides, I come here and meet my friends.” He said his parents do not know about his habit.
“But my brother says it is OK for me to smoke,” he said. When asked how old his brother is, he replied: “Fifteen.”
Arab News spoke to the manager, and pointed out the table with the young smokers. He said: “His brother is here and he ordered the shisha for them to smoke. We can’t override his brother’s wishes.”
When asked if he had verified the boy’s age and that the young man ordering the shisha was actually his brother, the answer was in the negative.
The manager seemed blase about his decision to allow them to smoke, even after being told that the boy doing the ordering was 15.
Within minutes of Arab News’ protestations to the management, the 13-year-old boy called the waiter over to replace the spent coals with fresh ones so he could continue smoking. Fresh coals were immediately delivered.
When Arab News protested again, the manager simply said: “Go ahead and write your article.”
To check that this was not a one-off incident, this reporter sent a 13-year-old relative into the Village Cafe to order a shisha. His order was taken and the shisha delivered.
According to the owner of another shisha cafe, Saudi Arabia has laws in effect that make serving shisha to those under 18 illegal. Owners of shisha cafes caught serving minors face being fined or having their licenses revoked by the chambers of commerce.
However, phone calls to the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (JCCI) and the police reveal that no such fine has ever been levied and no license revoked for violating this law.
Arab News approached police officers stationed at Atallah amusement park just meters away from the Village Cafe and asked them if they enforced the ban on minors smoking. The officer said: “We are too busy doing other things to worry about this. If the kids want to smoke, we can’t stop them.”
Other cafes in Jeddah strictly enforce the law. Arab News visited another cafe in the Al-Khalediya district when three young men aged 13 to 16 came in and attempted to order one shisha for them to share. The staff there refused to serve them.
“We have strict instructions from the owner not to serve anyone that even looks like they are underage. If we even suspect that someone is under 18, we don’t serve them,” Jhun, a server there, said.
One parent dropping off his son and two daughters at Atallah amusement park when told that the cafe serves children, said: “That is disgusting. It is also irresponsible of the chamber of commerce to grant a license for a shisha lounge to be operated so close to an area frequented by kids. If they don’t close it down, they should at least be warned not to serve minors.”
