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In El-Arish, the provincial capital of Egypt's North Sinai, a group of women sew colourful Bedouin designs on masks used to combat coronavirus epidemic, as an insurgency simmers in their restive region.
Egypt has recorded a total of 28,600 COVID-19 infections, including more than 1,000 deaths, while North Sinai itself remains the bloody scene of a long-running Islamist insurgency.
Naglaa Mohammed, a 36-year old homemaker, said she learned the skill of embroidery from her mother when she was very young. A versatile embroiderer, she also beads garments and crafts rings and bracelets.
Now with the pandemic, she has been designing face masks showcasing her Bedouin heritage.
Bedouins are nomadic tribes who traditionally inhabit desert areas throughout the Arab world, from North Africa to Iraq. Many have now integrated into a more urban lifestyle.
Egypt's Bedouin textile tradition of tatriz, weaving and beading rich of geometric and abstract designs on garments, cushions and purses, has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries.
It has survived in the Sinai Peninsula, whose north has been plagued by years of militant activity and terror attacks spearheaded by a local affiliate of the ISIL terrorist group.
Security forces have been locked in a battle to quell an insurgency in the Sinai that intensified after the military's 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
In February 2018, authorities launched a nationwide operation against militants, focusing on North Sinai.
Around 970 suspected militants have since been killed in the region along with dozens of security personnel, according to official figures.
Local and international media are banned from entering heavily militarized North Sinai.
But for Amany Gharib, who founded theEl-Fayrouz Association in El-Arish in 2010, the violence has not dissuaded her from keeping Bedouin heritage alive while at the same time empowering local women.
She now employs around 550 women like Mohammed, many of whom casually or part-time, as part of a textiles workshop.
The masks are composed of two layers, one inner layer directly on the face which is disinfected, and the colorful, beaded one outside.
The beading process takes about two days for each mask. /AFP
All the women take the necessary precautions while working, including wearing gloves and masks while operating sewing machines.
The finished products are washed, packed and shipped off to distribution centres in Cairo, where they are sold online in partnership with Jumia, Africa's e-commerce giant, for about 40 pounds (2.5 U.S. dollars) each.
The beading process takes about two days for each mask, Gharib said. Amid the volatile security situation, Mohammed has been able to eke out a meagre living with her embroidery skills.
They got their dues depending on the orders they got, and with the masks it has been a new challenge they had tackled, she said.
Dire economic conditions in Egypt have been even tougher for women of the Sinai since the pandemic began. Times were extremely tough for the women but they had adjusted, she said.
And while militant attacks on security checkpoints have continued, Gharib expressed confidence in the army."We feel a sense of security and stability with the military presence. We trust them," she said.
The region witnessed the deadliest terror attack in Egypt's modern history when militants killed more than 300 worshippers in a mosque in November 2017.
Gharib said that in North Sinai's tight-knit community, each family knew someone who had been killed in an attack.
Anyone of those killed would be considered as a martyr, said Gharib. They were in a war with terror, but the people had learnt to live with it, she added.
(Cover image: Egypt's Bedouin textile tradition of tatriz, weaving and beading rich of geometric and abstract designs on garments, cushions and purses, has been passed down from generation to generation. /AFP)
(AFP)
