A week or so ago, I started hearing a buzz about the new warning labels Egypt's health ministry is slapping on packs of cigarettes. Like many Western countries, Egypt previously used disturbing images of hospitalized cancer patients or photos of blackened lungs as a smoking deterrent, but this latest campaign is far more daring by local standards.
The new label (shown at left) depicts a droopy cigarette with the message: "Smoking for a long period of time affects marital relations."
In other words, put the cigarettes down or you might not, um, rise to the occasion. Those are fightin' words in a country where a slight to one's manhood or virility is serious business.
I did a quick Google search this morning and found that Matt Bradley from the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National beat me to the punch on this one. He had a funny story yesterday about the new warning labels -- under the headline: "In Egypt, real men don't smoke."
Trouble is, they do, as Bradley points out. He cited a recent World Health Organization study that showed nearly 50 percent of Egyptian men over the age of 25 use tobacco, compared to less than 2 percent of women.
With half of adult men smoking (in a country with a population of more than 80 million), that means there are plenty of guys here who don't take too kindly to the suggestion that they might be less than impressive in the bedroom.
Bradley's story in The National noted this reaction from an Egyptian legislator (presumably a smoker?):
“They are very serious about putting photos on the cigarette boxes. OK, may God help them. But why don’t they respect the society with whom they are dealing?” wrote Mohammed Mustafa Shirdi, a member of Egypt’s National Assembly, in Al Wafd newspaper last week. “You made a joke of us. Change this photo at once.”
“It’s a shame on the ministry of health to bring out this explicit sexual suggestion. And if, I’m sorry, your problem is flaccid things, there are medicines of the kind that will ‘raise your head, my brother’,” wrote Mr Shirdi, alluding to a well-known 1950s-era patriotic slogan.
In a culture that places so much emphasis on male virility, this can be an effective anti-smoking measure. So much for that after-meal smoke following a satisfying Viagra sandwich!
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With half of adult men smoking (in a country with a population of more than 80 million), that means there are plenty of guys here who don't take too kindly to the suggestion that they might be less than impressive in the bedroom.
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