Gender
Beyond the flavours: the hidden dangers of shisha smoking
On a hot Sunday afternoon, the Labadi beach or other leading beaches are filled with people from all walks of life, both foreigners and Ghanaians alike.
Children are seen playing in the sand while adults enjoy some food and drinks or bath in the sea amidst loud music.
Traders, horse riders and pub owners would also cash in, pitching their business to revellers at the beach.
As dusk settles in, some people would leave while others troop in, with the place becoming livelier as the beach is filled with a lot more people.
The atmosphere is choked with an unusual smell of smoke; a smoke emanating from random tables on the beach.
It is usually from a flavoured water pipe popularly known as shisha, sitting on the tables and used mostly by women who shared the same tube with friends on the same table.
This is often the sight at most beaches on holidays or weekends.
An attendant at the Labadi beach, told this writer that, shisha was mostly taken by women and the price ranges from GH¢50 to GH¢70 at the beach.
She also said the price is higher at other places saying “you can also get it from GH¢100 to GH¢200.
This mirrors what happens at other beaches, clubs, pubs and social gatherings across the capital and the country at large.
Shisha, also known as hookah or water pipe, is another form of combustible smoking of tobacco, where flavoured tobacco is burned with charcoal, while the smoke is guided through water via tube before it is inhaled by the smoker.
The intention behind the passage of tobacco smoke through water is to filter the smoke to make it safer. Also, the added flavour, mostly fruity, is to enhance the packaging and improve desirability.
This type of smoking was invented in ancient India, and it has remained a tradition to the Middle East, and a common practice for hundreds of years.
It is estimated that, globally, about 100 million people smoke shisha on a daily basis and most of these are adolescents, high school students, and university students.
Shisha smoking has become a common practice in social gatherings, generally shared in a group of four and five individuals and usually lasts from 20 to 80 minutes with 50–200 puffs per session.
The use of Shisha with tobacco products leads to particulate matter such as nicotine, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide. The presence of nicotine in smoke is the primary cause of dependence on tobacco-related products, hence its addiction.
The Ghanaian Times newspaper reported on November 6, 2024 that a new survey by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that more young women in the country were engaged in various forms of smoking on a daily basis than their male counterparts, resulting in cancer, heart and lung-related diseases in recent times.
It said WHO noted that while traditional cigarette smoking may be on the low, ‘Shisha,’ was rife particularly among persons 18 to 29 years, across the country.
“More than half of current tobacco smokers report smoking on a daily basis. Among daily smokers, 73.6 per cent smoked manufactured cigarette with individuals consuming three sticks of manufactured cigarettes per day on the average.
Among daily smokers, younger persons began smoking at an earlier age compared to their older counterparts. The proportion of current smokers who smoke shisha is 7.8 per cent, which is more prevalent among age group 18 to 29 years and highest among women,” it revealed.
Principal Investigator and Deputy Director of Disease Surveillance at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Dennis Laryea, expressed concern over the increasing rate of females smoking shisha in the country which holds dire consequences for the future.
“Once females take up something, it’s easier to drag the males along. And once we’re seeing this in younger women, it also means that they are likely to grow up with it and that is a potential risk for our development,” he stated.
Dr Laryea disclosed that while ‘Shisha’ may be portrayed as a trendy, favourable substance, it was highly harmful as it contained chemical which could be more dangerous to one’s health due to the longer smoking sessions. In an interview with the Principal Regulatory Officer with the Tobacco Products Department of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Mavis Danso on Friday, she said Shisha is legal because it is a tobacco product but its smoking is not allowed in public areas.
She explained that smoking of shisha is only allowed in designated areas, adding that it is so because tobacco products are scientifically known to cause a lot of illnesses which includes Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
“Once you smoke as an individual, you put yourself at risk and also endanger the people around you who also inhale your smoke which is called second-hand smoke,” she stated.
She again explained that the smoke coming out of the nostrils of the one smoking and also from the end of the cigarette or from the Shisha device, inhaled by those around is known as secondary smoking and also endangers the lives of the latter.
So in order for government to protect its citizenry, there is a law on ban of smoking at public places except in designated smoking area saying “you are not supposed to endanger other people once you are smoking.”
Ms Danso said, the department often engage in routine monitoring which includes at night as well as public education to ensure enforcement of the law
She mentioned that, her department also relies on voluntary complains from the public, stating that, citizens were expected to be enforcers of the law by reporting to the FDA or question the owner of the place.
She was optimistic of Ghana becoming a Shisha free country but said it will not only depend on enforcers but also on facility owners and vigilant individuals who ensure that the right thing was done.
Ms Danso said there was a high prevalence of shisha smoking among women as well as a misconception that shisha was better than smoking, a notion she described as untrue.
She mentioned that an hour use of shisha was equivalent to smoking 200 sticks of cigarettes.
Ms Danso also mentioned that the idea that it passes through water and the contaminants remained in the water was false and that once the substance is taken, it affects the entire body.
According to her, there was the tendency of it being additive due to nicotine found in it and also has risk factors such as heart and lung diseases and also cancers, adding that “there is no safe form of tobacco, whether smoked, inhaled or whatever forms it comes in, it is harmful and can cause serious health implications to the body.”
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), shisha also known as water pipe tobacco smoking was probably associated with oral, oesophageal and lung cancers and possibly with gastric and bladder cancers.
It said, shisha has also been associated with respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, periodontal disease, low birth weight, perennial rhinitis, male infertility, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and impairment of mental health.
With women, shisha can cause higher risk of preterm menstrual pause, reduced bone mineral density, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy; it is also associated with a higher rate of infant mortality and can lead to intrauterine growth restriction and the rise of certain chromosomal anomalies.
The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) three which states “good health and well-being” targets reduction in the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being by 2030.
This can be achieved when government and its health agencies, non-governmental organisations and individuals help enforce existing laws on shisha smoking.
Also, workshops, seminars should be organised by various stakeholders for young women focusing on the dangers of shisha, utilise social media platforms to raise awareness about risks of Shisha while sharing engaging content and personal stories and also create safe space and engaging recreational spaces for young women offering alternatives to shisha cafes and bars.
More so, it is important for facility owners to obey the laws on shisha smoking while the citizenry reports offenders to the FDA for appropriate punishments.
By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu
Gender
Trapped in Limbo: Teenager girls caught between consent and marriage laws
A child according to Ghana’s Children’s Act, 1998, is any person below the age of 18 years and it clearly states that the best interest of the child shall be paramount in any matter concerning the child.
Again, it says the best interest of the child shall be the primary consideration by any court, person, institution or other body in any matter concerning the child.
According to Section 14 of the Act, ‘no person shall force a child to be betrothed, be a subject of a dowry transaction; or be married’.
The minimum age of marriage of whatever kind, it stated, shall be 18 years.
Ghana’s minimum age for sex
However, Ghana’s minimum age of consent to sex is ‘16’ years old. At this age, an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participate in a sexual activity.
Ghana’s statutory rape law is therefore violated when an individual has consensual sexual contact with a person under age 16.
At the age of 16 years, most children in the part of the sub-region depend on their parents or guardians for their wellbeing-education, physiological needs (food, shelter, clothing, other basic necessities), and health needs among others.
When such a child, especially a female is legally permitted to consent to a sexual activity, it then means the child ‘should’ be able to take responsibility for whatever may be the effect of the sexual activity.
Disregard for loopholes in age consent to sex
A position paper on harmonising the age of sexual consent and the age of marriage in Ghana by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and UNICEF Ghana, states that despite the concerns arising from the disparity in age of sexual consent and age of marriage, it is noted that there have been limited legal interventions.
So far, it said attention had been on the campaign to end child marriages and much consideration had not been given to the age of sexual consent in the country.
In Ghana, sex is not a topic that is easily discussed in the open. The socio-cultural dynamics between parents and their children make it difficult for children to discuss their sexuality freely with older members of their family.
Exacerbated by the ubiquity of social media, the result is that many young children and adolescents learn about sex from peers, internet sources and experimentation. If a child is too young to marry before the age of 18, is he/she old enough to have sex at 16 years?
In their consultations, they found out people were far more willing to accept boys’ interest in sex as natural, than teenaged girls’ interest, which was regarded as wayward, and symptomatic of some deficiency in a girl’s upbringing or in the girl herself.
Statistics
In Ghana, many adolescents aged 15 to 18, whether married or not, have had sexual intercourse, according to the United Nations Population Fund report in 2016.
Additionally, 12 per cent of girls and nine per cent of boys have had sex before the age of 15 and statistics further show that 10 per cent of teens under 15 years are having sex.
A survey conducted by the Ghana Demographic Health (GDHS) in 2008 revealed that 44 per cent of young people have sex before age 18 and most initiate it at age 15.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, between 2008 and 2014, the percentage of men and women between the ages of 25 and 40 who reported having sexual intercourse at age 15 decreased only one point, from 12 to 11 per cent (GSS 2015).
Furthermore, it has been estimated that four in 10 Ghanaian women and two in 10 men aged 15–19 have had sex before. (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2004).
Experiences of survivors
In an engagement with Martha Asante, a 17-year old school dropout, she said: “I got pregnant at 16 and was forced to drop out of school. If the age of consent to sex was 18, I might have avoided this situation.
Since we were taught in school you can have sex at 16, I just gave in to a man who showed interest easily.”
Another, Naa Lamiokor Tagoe, a survivor of a child marriage, says: “I was married at 17 and had to endure physical and emotional abuse. If the legal age of marriage was enforced, I might have been spared this ordeal.”
Expert’s concerns
Mr Abdulai Jaladeen, the Upper East Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), at the celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child in Bolgatanga, appealed to the Gender Ministry to lead the crusade for a memo to be sent to Parliament for the law to be amended.
The delay in reviewing the age of consent to sex, he said, allowed culprits of child sexual abuses to go scot free. “When an adult impregnates a child at the age of 16, the law can catch up on you, but some of these people go behind to influence parents and even the victim.
And once the girl appears before a judge, and says I consented, the judge and prosecutors cannot do anything,” he noted.
Mr Jaladeen explained that if the law was changed from 16 to 18, men who fell foul to the law against girls below the age of 18 years would be punished fairly no matter the culprit’s financial and social standing.
He also called for a review of the Children’s Act to give stiffer punishment to people who give their girls out for early marriages to serve as deterrent to others, adding that the fine of GH¢500 for convicting an offender of the law was too minimal and suggested that a provision that spelt out modalities be made to compel the culprit to ensure that her education was not halted.
Dr Ndonwie Peter, National Executive Secretary of Girls Not Brides-Ghana, a network of non-governmental organisations, said the results of early sex at 16 was pregnancy, which truncated the education of girls as they were in many instances forced to cohabitate or marry those responsible for impregnating them.
He explained that the harmonisation of such laws to peg the minimum age of girls consenting to sex at 18 years, would help to control the increasing rate of early and forced marriages.
Challenges
Problems associated with child sex before marriage is intimate partner violence, sexually transmitted infections, adolescent pregnancy, early childbirth including unsafe abortions and infringements on their sexual and reproductive health and rights. The sexual relation involving a child usually occurs between her and an adult.
Therefore the older persons often take advantage of the girls and give them little or no room to negotiate for safe sex.
The WHO states that at 16 years or lower, the biological constitute of the girl might pose as a threat to childbirth and girls who engage in sexual activities are more likely to get pregnant, a condition that puts them at risk of experiencing stillbirths, miscarriages, eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections.
The babies might also suffer preterm birth, low birth weight due to young maternal age at birth, and severe neonatal condition. Many teenagers at age 16 engage in sexual intercourse not for procreation, but out of curiosity or for the fun of it and aside its consequences, the teenage mother may not be prepared for marriage or be legally permitted to marry.
To avoid shame, the parents of the female children may force their daughters to marry the man who impregnated them.
The situation is more common in the coastal communities and the Northern part of the country, where the pregnant girl is forced to live with the man responsible and/or his family, reports have stated.
Ghana as a country that is hungry for growth with all parties involved such as government, civil society organisation, development partners and donor agencies, parents, students, religious and traditional leaders, the media as well as legal practitioners, need to analyse carefully if an addition to the population through unwanted pregnancies by children is positive and should be encouraged.
If a child born of a child is not well taken care of due to inadequate finances, that child becomes a burden on society and the government at large. They gradually join the large population to depend on the fewer resources, and thereby harden the lives of the citizenry much more. -GNA
Gender
President Mahama commits to gender equality, female representation
Ghana has marked a significant milestone in its history with the inauguration of its first female Vice President, Naana Jane Opoku- Agyemang.
According to President Mahama, her ascension to this high office was not just a personal achievement, but a testament to the nation’s commitment to promoting gender equality and female representation.
He said this at the swearing in of both he and the Vice president at the Independence Square in Accra on Tuesday.
He said his administration will also be committed to fostering a nation where gender equality and female representation were cherished and amplified.
“With the inauguration of Ghana’s first female Vice President, we have turned a significant page in our history. Naana Jane’s ascension to this high office is not merely a personal triumph; it symbolises our collective commitment to fostering a nation where gender equality and female representation are cherished and amplified,” he said.
President Mahama also reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to fostering a culture of inclusivity and empowerment in Ghana and described the inauguration of Prof. Opoku- Agyemang, as a powerful testament to the impact of diverse voices in shaping the nation’s future.
That, he said represented a significant step towards breaking the glass ceiling that has long hindered many Ghanaians, particularly women and youth, from reaching their full potential.
He emphasised that his administration is dedicated to enacting policies that empower women and ensure equal opportunities for the youth, regardless of their background.
“We stand committed to enacting policies that empower women and ensure that doors of opportunity swing open for our youth regardless of their background. Together, we will galvanise our efforts to create a society where every Ghanaian can dream, believe and achieve without restraint,” he added.
President Mahama said his administration was committed to fostering a more inclusive, accountable, and innovative society.
Alongside his Vice President, President Mahama pledged to create pathways that uplift every Ghanaian citizen.
By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu
