Manama: Saudi Arabia is launching a massive new fight against smoking, expanding the areas where people are not allowed to smoke and imposing fines on violators.
Under the new rules smoking is prohibited in areas near mosques, ministries, government agencies, public institutions, private and public educational, sports, health and cultural facilities, company work areas, commissions, factories and banks, and on public transport.
Smoking will also be banned in food and drink factories, oil production sites, gas stations, stores, elevators and bathrooms, local news site Sabq reported on Sunday.
A 200 riyal fine (Dh195) will be imposed on people who smoke in the prohibited areas, according to the new bylaws regulation regarding smoking in the kingdom that will come into full effect next year.
The price of tobacco products will be increased by a decision from the cabinet and all sweets in the shape of cigarettes will be banned.
Media programmes, clothes and products promoting smoking and cigarettes will be banned under the bylaw.
Education, media, health and social affairs ministries will launch creative and attractive programmes to promote awareness about the dangers of smoking with assistance from the private sector.
According to official figures, Saudi Arabia is home to six million smokers, including around 800,000 teenagers, mainly intermediate and high school students, and 600,000 women.
However, expatriates also account for a significant proportion of cigarette consumption in Saudi Arabia despite the increase in the number of awareness campaigns about the health risks related to smoking and passive smoking and the adoption of several legislative restrictions.
Court data published in 2013 indicated that Saudi women added divorce to the risks and dangers associated with smoking.
Reports indicate more than 100 women in the Western city of Madinah filed for divorce after their husbands refused or were unable to quit smoking.
“Courts in other cities in Saudi Arabia have also accepted cases filed by unhappy wives who wanted a divorce over the issue of smoking,” the report on the status of smoking-related divorces and published in the Okaz daily said.
“Attempts by reconciliation committees to keep the spouses have failed to convince the wives who insisted on husbands who do not smoke. The issue is now being addressed before the wedding and several young women in Madinah have rejected marriage proposals from men who smoked.”
Child custody cases
The report was prepared based on studies and research on the effects of smoking on marital relations.
Around 40 per cent of Saudi university graduates flatly refused to marry husbands who smoked.
The young women attributed their uncompromising decision not to “marry into a smoking home” to health concerns about themselves, their future husbands and their future children.
A Saudi judge in 2012 ruled that women who suffered as a result of their husbands’ smoking were allowed to file for divorce.
In October 2012, Saudi judges set a new trend in the country by using cigarette smoking as a factor in child custody cases.
“A parent could now lose the custody case if he or she is proven to be a smoker,” a legal official said.
“Under the emerging trend, the smoking factor is now being treated like the drinking factor and can decide the outcome of the custody case,” he said.
The court will favour non-smoking parents and factor smoking into custody cases to protect the child from the negative impact of passive smoking.
