A Child the World Turned Away From

Handala is not just a symbol, he is a witness. Created in 1975 by the Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali, Handala is a barefoot child, always facing away, hands behind his back. He represents the Palestinian child in exile, one who stopped aging at ten, the age al-Ali was when he was forced to flee his homeland. Handala refuses to face a world that has turned its back on justice, and through this silent stance, he became the conscience of the oppressed. In 1987, Naji al-Ali was assassinated for his work, but Handala survived: eternally still, eternally resisting.

Our NAQSH interpretation of Handala is not nostalgia: it is a visual uprising. We’ve placed him in the center of destruction, surrounded by the haunting phrase: "DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK." His figure carries scars, textures, and symbolic patterns, echoing the rubble of Gaza and the memory of all lands erased by silence. In red: the color of blood, but also of survival, we write: "WE ARE ALL HANDALA." This is not just about Palestine. This is about every voice dismissed, every people displaced, and every story ignored. Handala stands, not in defeat, but in defiance: bent, but unbroken.

At NAQSH, we see design as a sacred form of resistance, a way to imprint meaning, history, and truth into every image. Like the name suggests: Naqsh (نقش), meaning "imprint," "pattern," or "mark". Our mission is to carve cultural memory into the fabric of our work. We do not present Handala as a relic of the past, but as a living mirror. He does not face the world because we must. And so we promise: as long as he stands in silence, we will speak with art. We will not turn away. We will stay. 
 
We are all Handala.

NAQSH.