Qena’s Uncle Hamza Keeps Family Shawl-Making Craft Alive After 40 Years

For 40 years, Uncle Hamza has practised the craft of making shawls by hand in Egypt’s Qena governorate, preserving a skill passed down through his family.

His working life has taken him into other fields. He taught geography and also worked in construction outside Egypt, but never gave up the craft he inherited from his forebears.

Through those changes in occupation, handmade shawls remained a constant. His commitment to the work connects his own story with that of earlier generations in Qena.

Today, Uncle Hamza’s four decades of shawl-making reflect an enduring attachment to a family craft, one he continued to practise alongside a career in teaching and work abroad.