Al-Jazirah newspaper

ABOUT five months ago I was in Jeddah sitting at a coffee shop in the hotel where I was staying. A family was sitting next me. They had a child who was five or six years old. They offered him the Shisha to poke out smoke while they were laughing joyously of the way the child was smoking the Shisha. Among them was an old woman whom I assumed to be the child's mother.

The scene exasperated me to the limit. I felt not only angry but also nervous and almost out of control.

I wished so much that I had the ability to take the Shisha in my hand and break it into pieces to stop this ugly scene.

However, I resorted to the weakest faith and went to the hotel management. I asked to see the manager of the coffee shop and told him about what I had just watched.

The manager went to the family and informed them about my complaint. He warned them against such behavior.

The surprising thing is that the scene took place in front of the eyes of all the staff of the coffee shop but none of them blinked an eye.

The staff would not have dared to see anything wrong in the scene had I not made the complaint.

The family, who did not like what I did, started looking at me suspiciously. They were making gestures that I had spoiled the evening for them and prevented them from the joy of seeing their child puffing off the smoke.

What made me narrate this story is the painful video clip that I have recently watched. A man was putting a cigarette in the mouth of a child to smoke.

The video went viral and the public opinion was unanimously against it. A large number of tweets condemned the scene.

Attorney General Sheikh Saud Bin Abdulah Al-Muajib had thankfully issued orders to arrest the man.

What I want to say from the scene I watched in my hotel in Jeddah and the story of the smoking child is that smoking in the presence of children should be considered a crime that should be punished by law.

The children must not be allowed to enter coffee shops or restaurants where smoking is permitted.

The law should be more enlightened than some parents who do not realize the dangers of passive smoking on the children.

We also often see children in a car where the driver is smoking freely in their presence. This is also a crime against the health and well being of children.

Laws to prevent people from smoking in front of their children or asking them to join them in puffing a cigarette or a Shisha should be immediately made. There should also be modalities to watch the children after the people who make them smoke are punished.

The children should not be allowed to be present in environments that may jeopardize their lives or threaten their health.

Apart from smoking, there are real other dangers threatening the lives and health of children in our society, which we are ignoring at present. I have fears that a day may soon come when we will realize that the upbringing of our children was all wrong.

The incorrect upbringing of our children is a threat to our society, which we may come to realize in the very near future. But my fears are that this may come too late.