Licensing shisha in Egypt

Amendments made to Egypt’s public-shops law will require restaurants and cafés to obtain licenses to serve shisha, according to a Daily News Egypt story.

The amendments were passed by Parliament on Monday after two hours of discussions.

Article 26 of the law now stipulates that premises that serve food or drinks to the public will be able to offer shisha only if they obtain an EG£10,000 license.

And article 27 requires all such premises to install internal and external surveillance cameras.

According to the News, a recent study found that 81 percent of shisha smokers were spending about 10 percent of their incomes on daily shisha consumption.

Additionally, the majority of people frequenting restaurants and cafés were found to be smoking shisha.

Reportedly, the revenues of these businesses are mostly gained from shisha, which is always in high demand from both men and women.