Word: hookah
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...government didn't realize how harmful it will be," said 21-year-old Shaz Ahmed, a recent university graduate and avid smoker of the liquid cooled shisha pipe, or hookah . "Businesses that rely on shisha will lose a lot of money - so they will go underground. What else can they do?" Unlike regular pubs whose main revenue stream is the sale of alcohol, the shisha bars don't serve alcohol in deference to its prohibition in Islam...
...niquabs and, above all, famous all-night shisha cafes. Since they were set up in the 1980s, the cafes have become a mecca for students, bohemians and free-thinkers of various stripe to congregate with Muslims and engage in that most ubiquitous of Middle Eastern pastimes, smoking the hookah. Scented tobacco is burned on coals and sucked through an ornate water vessel before being inhaled, inducing a strong nicotine high. Originally intended for visiting Gulf sheikhs and Middle Eastern expats, in recent years the cafes have become trendy amongst a new generation of multicultural British youth...
...recent Tuesday, Al-Shishawa is heaving with customers, chatting and eating amidst a fug of hookah smoke. "Personally I think [the government] should make an exception because it's a cultural thing," says Amram Miah, 24, a data analyst, relaxing with two friends over a watermelon-flavored pipe. "We don't drink, it's a social choice...
Mohammed Matwli, a manager at Al-Sishawa, points out that half of his establishment's profits come from hookah pipes and that he is planning to lay off staff as a result of the ban. From this month onward shisha smokers will be forced to relocate themselves outside, where Al-Shishawa can at present accommodate only a tenth of its customers. Other cafes that don't serve food face complete closure...
...beneath a massive golden chandelier; over at BOW 4, tel: (43-1) 310 55 82, the techno is as loud as the Moroccan-themed surroundings. When your ears start ringing, go for a nightcap at the blissfully laid-back SHIRAZ, tel: (43-664) 335 55 55 - a favorite of hookah-smoking jeunesse dorée, lounging on Persian pillows. Josefstädterstrasse is the Gürtel's other nightlife hub. Fans of electronica gather at RHIZ, tel: (43-1) 409 25 05, not only for the international DJs but also the superior live performances (U.S. theremin virtuoso Pamelia Kurstin...