CAIRO — Sometimes, the raw material of Ali Ghomari’s work comes screaming from the skies over Yemen.
Missiles fired by Saudi-led coalition jets rain down on militiamen and civilians alike, killing and maiming thousands. Children, farmers and others collect shrapnel from their farmlands, from dirt alleys in impoverished neighborhoods, and offer it for sale to Ghomari and other artisans.
From missiles, they do not make ploughshares. They make knives — jambiyya (jam-BEE-yah), the ornamental daggers Yemeni men wear for prestige and as a show of courage.
Once, they were made of imported steel, but high prices have forced craftsmen to use the refuse of war. One kilogram of fragment steel costs about 500 rials (less than $1), half the price of Turkish steel.
The daggers have curved blades and are a part of traditional Yemeni attire — slipped into a decorated, hook-shaped sheath and tucked in vertically at the center of ornate belts, or placed in the top of a wrap-around male skirt.
