~YOUTH VIEWS~ Beyond the Smoke, There is Solidarity Among Cultures by Victoria Harben

~YOUTH VIEWS~ Beyond the Smoke, There is Solidarity Among Cultures

by Victoria Harben

02 May 2006

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Tucson, Arizona - Behind a heavy haze and intense smell of what seems to be a mix of cigars and incense lies a colourful lounge full of college students sitting and chatting in deep-seated couches. Thumping, bass-heavy music shakes walls and eardrums alike. The Bubble Lounge, a hookah bar in Albuquerque, New Mexico is introducing Americans to Middle Eastern culture.

Hookah bars, where anyone can pay a small price to indulge in the traditional Middle Eastern practice of smoking flavoured tobacco, are the latest intersection of globalisation and youth culture. For the uninitiated, a hookah is a smoking device with a vase at the bottom containing water - to filter the tobacco - and a metal pipe, from which protrude the colourfully-decorated smoking tubes. Above this lies the heating mechanism, usually a thin slab of charcoal.

While there is more than a passing resemblance to certain devices commonly used to smoke illegal substances, hookahs are used only for regular or flavoured tobacco. Strawberry, cola, white peach, rose and dozens of various flavours of “shisha”, or tobacco, are available. Shisha is healthier than smoking cigarettes because the washing process used in producing it leaves behind much of the tar and nicotine. The shisha is then dried and soaked in molasses, honey and fruit to give it its distinctive flavour.

For Americans under the legal drinking age of 21 (but over 18, since tobacco is unavailable to minors), as well as for Muslim-Americans, a hookah lounge is a perfect hangout on a Saturday night. The phenomenon is not only giving older teenagers an alternative to illegal drinking, it’s also causing a convergence of cultures.

Hookah originated in India over a millennium ago and conquered most of the Middle East more than 500 years ago. Today, the trend has crossed the Atlantic and established itself in both major American cities and smaller college towns. From cafes in Cairo to bars in Baghdad, tearooms in Tucson to houses in Honolulu, hookahs seem to be everywhere.

This infusion of Middle Eastern culture in American life is promoting interaction with Muslims and a new interest in Middle Eastern culture. A group of girls at the Bubble Lounge sits at a table talking and laughing while they pass around the hookah’s hose. Two Americans, two sisters from Baghdad, and a Pakistani girl have gathered at the lounge to chat and smoke.

“It diversifies the cultures,” said Saba Mohammad, a native of Baghdad and current journalism sophomore at the University of New Mexico (UNM). “We can just relax with the hookah, people like it more than drinking or cigarettes. It’s a great alternative to partying, which I’m not interested in.”

Alicia Garcia, a media arts sophomore also attending UNM, thinks smoking hookah brings about a positive cross-cultural exchange. “Being in this environment helps to educate people about the positives of the Middle East,” she said. “When you’re here experiencing the culture with people from all over the world, you forget the unfair negativity that’s been portrayed by the media and this nation for the past decade.”

Garcia has been friends with Mohammad, the owner, for years, but that doesn’t stop them from learning new things about each other’s cultures. “We teach each other a lot,” said Garcia. “Diversifying your social group can really broaden horizons.”

As the group of girls continue chatting around their hookah, they order a special kind - double apple - which, according to Mohammed, is only available to VIP customers, and the music suddenly becomes louder. Three belly-dancers appear in the doorway and begin to make their way around the room.

Cheers erupt from the sidelines as the dancers shake to the Middle Eastern music and the clientele watches, entranced by the performance.

Behind the bead curtain of the Bubble Lounge lies a different world where cultures intertwine and the stereotypes of the outside world are forgotten. Here at least, it seems ignorance and hatred can be dissolved in a puff of apple-flavoured smoke.

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* Victoria Harben is a third-year student of journalism at the University of Arizona. This article was commissioned by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), May 2, 2006

Visit the website at www.commongroundnews.org

Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH).

Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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