AE092 Enjoying a Hookah

A familiar sight throughout the Middle East and North Africa is the ‘Hookah’. This is a single or multi stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking either tobacco, flavoured tobacco or sometimes cannabis, hashish and even... opium. The smoke is passed through a water basin – often glass-based before inhalation.

In the Arab world and throughout the Middle East people smoke ‘hookahs’ as part of their culture and traditions. Social smoking is done with a single or double hose ‘hookah’ and even triple or quadruple versions on occasion.

Smoking a ‘hookah’ can be done at home privately or with company in cafes which are widespread social gathering places throughout the Arab world.