going up in smoke.

(From Arabies Trends)

Byline: Ingrid Wassman.

In a tiny coffee shop off Cairo's crowded Tahrer Square, customers sip their morning tea. A middle-aged man in a wrinkled galabia inhales deeply on his shisha. The water gurgles inside the glass body of the pipe; thick, white smoke leaks from the man's mouth, twisting like a ghost.

Meanwhile, across town in the upscale suburb of Maadi, a well-dressed woman in a headscarf sits alone at a trendy Nile-view caf, talking on her mobile phone and occasionally puffing on an apple-flavored shisha.

Over the past decade, the water pipe has become, once again, omnipresent across the Arab world, especially in Egypt. The smoking device, introduced to Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in the 19th century, has steadily transcended social class, age and gender. From the most modest local caf, it has made its way into the glitziest of Cairo's five-star hotels and even onto the menus of the city's fanciest restaurants.

"Shisha used to only be in the ahwa baladi, the traditional coffee shops, exclusively for lower-class men," says Madiha El-Safty, sociology professor at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

The reasons why so many Egyptians - including students, affluent professionals and even women - smoke shisha today vary considerably. Some say it is out of addiction, habit or curiosity. Others indulge as a form of entertainment, or for relaxation. Some even associate it with freedom or with a fashion statement. But, for many, the major attraction is simply the smell of the fruity tobacco.