Controversial anti-smoking campaign in Saudi Arabia
According to the organizers, the captivating slogan of their anti-smoking campaign was invented to attract young men to kick their smoking habit down by proposing them a more than tempting alternative.
And the slogan is working exactly as the organizers wanted, since many young grooms responded by calling and getting registered in the program, which is by the way, the first smoking-cessation program in the country, and one person even expressed his will to pick up smoking in order to take part in the drawing of the grand prize- the funds to organize a wedding.
In the majority of Arab countries, it is up to the groom to cover all the expenses for the wedding, including the furniture for the house, the dowry and the wedding party itself. Therefore, Arab men frequently postpone wedding till they have enough funds to getting married.
However, critics argued that the drive is making women into a kind of a prize or even commodity, yet the campaign authors denied that issue, claiming that the principal aim of the campaign making young people aware about the health risks related to smoking. In conformity with the statistics, 25 percent of all Saudi Arabia adult population, consisting of 27.6 million are smokers.
The anti-smoking-campaign is as well being promoted in shopping malls, at hospitals, universities and in the print media.
The organizer of the drive, a local anti-smoking group named Purity, specifies the principal condition for taking part in the program is the presence of a recently signed marriage contract and evidence that the marriage would be the first one for the participant. The marriage contract in Arab world differs from the traditional one as it should be signed even before the couple started living together, and in some countries it is even signed by the parents of the future spouses.
The prize drawing ceremony, which would be held in August, would comprise all the participants who took part in a weeklong workshop. The winner will be determined by a lottery and will win a totally-paid wedding, whereas 20 finalists will be provided with furniture.
The chairman of Purity, Suleiman al-Somy, mentioned that the major objective of the campaign is to explain the advantages of creating a non-smoking family to the young men. Approximately 30 percent of Saudi teenagers are exposed to second-hand smoke by their own parents in their homes, said al-Somy.
The Purity chairman added that they have received hundreds of calls, including several from non-smokers who said they would pick up in order to get the prize, and even one caller asking if the campaign provided brides.
Meantime, many newspapers in Saudi Arabia criticized the campaign.
Several people demanded the campaign organizers to get a blessing of clerics before starting the campaign; others simply named the drive as sexism.
Reporter Nahla Al-Witan wrote in her column in one of the Riyadh magazines that the concept of the campaign can be perceived as kicking smoking down and getting a woman instead of a cigarette, what would be absolutely unacceptable.
Al-Somy stated that people have misinterpreted the slogan.
“Did we promise to give participants a woman?” he mentioned.
