As it is known, only some of Christians or Muslims speak openly about sex. But recently, last month Egypt’s Ministry of Health announced that their latest weapon in the war on smoking is a graphic warning label of a declining cigarette, meaning the possible for tobacco-induced impotence, putted on every pack sold throughout the country.

For example even a statement in Arabic warns that “long-term smoking will influence family relations”. In general it wasn’t the first such graphic message to show up the dangers of smoking, but for many Egyptian men, it was the first they had heard about the link between impotence and tobacco.

Many Egyptian men do not believe that smoking is cause of impotence. For example Nadir Abdel Rahim, 40, from the Darb el-Ahmar neighborhood, declared: “We know that smoking is not good habit for the health, but I can’t believe this. I’ve been smoking 22 years, and I work just fine. Actually, I feel very good.”

But in this male-dominated society, many men were more interested for women, shocked that they could so easily see an allusion referring to sex. In a conservative society like Egypt, for both Muslims and Christians, speaking openly about sex in public is frowned upon, reported researchers.

Women, who constitute only a small fragment of Egypt’s smoking population, are also displeased by the new image of the cigarettes packs. “What were they thinking to use a picture like this? It’s just too much for a country like ours,” Sally Kandil, 32, a smoker of 13 years.

It was a courageous move by a government desirous to cut the cigarette use that seems to be a very big routine part of life in Egypt, because in Egypt smokers have free reign whether in restaurants, at the cinema, in between train cars or even while waiting at the doctor’s office. For example being offered a cigarette from a stranger on the street is as an invitation to a cup of tea.

Egypt is the largest consumer of tobacco in the Arab region. Statistics show that nearly 40 percent of adult men are smoking 19 billion cigarettes a year.

By Steve Shepherd, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2010 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.