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Gaza women ban from smoking water pipes
1:53 AM
Hamas authorities ruling the Gaza strip are banning women from smoking water pipes in cafes and open places, claiming it violates customs, traditions and social norms. The smoking of water pipes loaded with scented tobacco, also known as shisha, is popular in cafes and public places of the Arab countries and was one of the few remaining leisure activities left in the isolated coastal strip. According to policemen, husbands often divorce women seen smoking in public. The owners of several coastal cafes said that in recent days they were ordered to stop serving the water pipes at all, before police clarified that the ban only referred to women and minors. Alarabiya.net.