Beirut, Lebanon: Lebanese pop singer Carla Nazih Berkachi, commonly known as Yara, was taken to a police station by her driver in Algeria after she refused to stop smoking in accordance with the country’s Ramadan laws.
According to the sources, Yara, a Christian, took out a cigarette and began smoking whilst being driven from Setif, east of the capital Algiers, to Constantine. She refused to put the cigarette out after her driver, an Algerian who was fasting, asked her to do so. The driver became angry with her response, and took her to the police station in the city of Chelghoum.
The police informed her that she was not allowed to smoke in public during Ramadan in Algeria, a majority Muslim country, even though she was a Christian. She was asked by the Algerian police to show some respect to Muslims and Ramadan.
Muslims fast in the holy month of Ramadan every year, during which, they abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and being involved in other sexual activities from sunrise till sunset.