UNESCO registers Aragoz as Egypt's intangible cultural heritage
Called Aragoz, Karagoz or Karagiozis, the puppet with the red cap and acid tongue has satirized politics and social life for centuries. UNESCO has registered the puppet play as Egypt’s historical heritage.
For centuries, Aragoz, a glove puppet with large eyes and a thin black mustache, has criticized Egyptian governments and mocked social institutions from marriage to parenthood in his metallic voice. This insolent puppet, with a conical cap placed on his wooden head, has given its name to Egypt’s traditional mobile puppet theater.
Though it enjoys a similar name to Turkey’s shadow play of Karagoz and Greece’s Karagiozis, the Aragoz is now registered under Egypt’s intangible heritage, under a Nov. 26 decision made by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to include it in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The decision was taken unanimously during the 13th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which began Nov. 26 and concluded Dec. 1.
UNESCO describes Aragoz as “an old form of Egyptian theatre using traditional hand puppetry.”
“Performances are highly popular events during which puppeteers remain hidden inside a small portable stage while an assistant interacts with the puppets and crowd,” UNESCO says on its official website.
