Shisha 2

While looking for information on shisha, I have found a very interesting site:
www.sacrednarghile.com
that points out at the role of shisha in Middle Estern societies. Some abstracts:
Women and shisha: "In the past, women of the Shah' suit spent most of their time smoking narghile. Between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Turkish women of the upper classes were fond of being photographed near their narghile for the latter had become an essential element of any social or intellectual gathering. Today, be that in Iran, in the Persian-Arabian Gulf countries or in the Middle East, women remain narghile amateurs. We can see them smoking in Beirut, Damascus, Amman or Cairo."

Religion and shisha:"Believers of the three monotheist religions of the region have been smoking narghile for centuries in an undifferentiated way. The route from the mosque to the coffee-house and vice versa was, for a long period, a vulgar course of daily life. In less puritanical times than today's, it was not rare to meet religious men in cafés and in particular Sufis. As for the annual festivities accompanying the ritual fast month (Holy Ramadân) widely observed by local populations, they have actually made of narghile (hookah) a star of Arab-Islamic sociability."

" Cigarettes are for nervous people, competitive people, people on the run […] When you smoke a narghile, you have time to think. It teaches you patience and tolerance, and gives you an appreciation of good company. Narghile smokers have a much more balanced approach to life than cigarette smokers." (Ismet Ertep, 71 years)