Smoking in Paki Youth

I believe that the Pakistani youth is very uniform. Be it good or bad habits, you will see them all across a particular strata of the Pakistani youth society. This made me wonder whether the Pakistani youth succumbs to an unusually large extent to Peer Pressure. After all, if you look at the number of guys smoking in colleges in Pakistan, you will notice that it is unusually high. In the developed world, smoking is almost considered 'disgusting', especially amongst the educated people who know about its health risks. However, if you notice in Pakistan, almost every 'popular' person (especially males) on campus smokes, and that also proudly in public places. I believe one of the reasons why smoking is become so widespread is because the youth is very frustrated. I've heard a lot of people smoking likea chimney saying that they are very stressed out and smoking helps them. It is also sad that our society never brings out the Islamic view on smoking, because its inconvenient because if not the person,one of his/her loved one smokes. Most religious scholars around the world agree that smoking is Makrooh.

Another popular myth seen amongst the youth is that sheesha is 1.Halal 2. Not addictive 3. Harmless! (trust me I’ve heard a lot ofpeople say there’s no harm smoking sheesha!). Firstly, most scholars agree that sheesha is Makrooh to say the least and even though it might not be as addictive as smoking, all my friends who smoke sheesha say that it is addictive. And to the last point, some of you might be surprised to know that SMOKING SHEESHA IS VERY HARMFUL – a 45 minute session of sheesha is like smoking a pack of cigarettes.