In Tunis, artisans and residents rally to rescue treasured old city
It takes one glance to tell all is not well in the Medina.
The walled, historic old city of the Tunisian capital – once marked by bustling markets and streams of people hustling between the shops, homes, and government offices along its narrow streets and hidden passageways – is nearly empty.
You would be forgiven for mistaking noon on a Monday for 6 a.m. on a Sunday.
“We are waiting for nothing,” a chachiya hatmaker says as he shuffles boxed hats from one wall of his shop to the other. “We just show up for a few hours out of habit. No one is coming.”
The Medina’s shuttered shops serve as a stern warning that the pandemic and a recession are threatening to undo
