Revoking a smoking ban may seem an unlikely way to boost election turnouts. But in Iran, authorities are hopeful that allowing the traditional hubble-bubble, or water pipes, back into tea houses could encourage reluctant voters to go to the polls.
The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has signed into law a bill that removes tea houses from the list of places where smoking tobacco is prohibited, Iranian newspapers reported on Thursday.
The move comes only two weeks after Iran's court of administrative justice, a judicial body independent of the government, banned the smoking of all sorts of tobacco in traditional restaurants and tea houses. Iranians were allowed only to smoke certain types – perceived to be less dangerous – in the past.
Since Ahmadinejad first took the office in 2005, water pipes have intermittently been banned from, then allowed, in tea houses.
In his early years in power, Ahmadinejad came under pressure from conservatives to curb water pipe smoking, which had become a popular pastime for the young people but was seen as culturally decadent by the regime, despite being an integral part of the Persian culture for centuries. A smoking ban was eventually passed in October 2006 but was lifted later to allow certain kinds of tobacco. » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Thursday, November 17, 2011
