Bab Al-Shaareyah is a historic Cairo neighbourhood dating back to the Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin. The neighbourhood housed two of Cairo’s old gates; one was named after the neighbourhood and the other is called Bab El-Bahr. Today, Bab El-Bahr is the biggest street market in the neighbourhood, where vendors sell a diverse range of products from poultry, vegetables and detergents to tobacco.
Bab El-Bahr’s street market stretches for over a kilometre, with alleyways crisscrossing the street providing parking spots for motorcycles and carts used to transfer merchandise and products.
At the middle of the market, vendors selling peculiar cigarette packages start to appear off the sides of the street. The further you walk, the more vendors you find up until you reach what seems to be a wholesale cigarette market.
Under a number of improvised tents, towers of cigarette packages are displayed on nearly every street corner, adorned with placards of prices.
Although those packages of cigarettes may look familiar, a closer look shows that their brands are unknown. These are smuggled cigarettes, and Bab El-Bahr street market is their home.
Dead giveaways
Even during the holy month of Ramadan (during which Muslims abstain from various forms of consumption, including smoking), the hustle and bustle of Bab El-Bahr’s smuggled cigarettes market seemed almost at normal levels. Eager customers walk up and down the different shops, checking out and even haggling over the already cheap prices, regardless of the price placards.
Karim, a 15-year-old shopkeeper, explains the difference in the appearance and features between the smuggled cigarettes and original ones (whether they are imported or locally manufactured).
“There are signs that distinguish original cigarettes from counterfeit and smuggled ones. First, the colour of the counterfeit packages is slightly lighter. For example, this counterfeit Marlboro package is red; the original package that you would buy from a supermarket is dark red. Second, there is always this warning against smoking on original cigarette packs, on the counterfeit and smuggled ones you find none.”