Nagada Trip

In this visit to Nagada, i found out that the old man Pharah has retired for the time being because of his ill health, which saddened me. He recommended his student, Adel, who now leads some weavers who were also trained by Paharah, the old experienced craftsman.



To my surprise, it turned out that Adel, the student has surpassed his teacher Paharah, and mastered new techniques of weaving, like the double-face and zigzag styles.

Adel told me that the craft is in decline, since most weavers are turning to other fields of work because of the drop in demand, migration of skilled weavers is a major problem, also another problem is the absence of good quality Egyptian yarns, which forces them to use imported yarn threads.

I believe that if there is a concentrated effort and enthusiasm to revive such handicrafts, we can achieve some balance and restore the dignity and livelihood of those long-forgotten communities, not only in Egypt, but around the world.