In Chitrali society, the concept of the “skilled hand” has always enjoyed a high status. In particular, women skilled in handicrafts have been held in high regards. Until the mid-’70s, when educational facilities became more available as did jobs relating to academic qualifications, “hand skill” was the only way of judging the merit of a lady. A skilled woman was called Hunarman and her praises were extolled in numerous Khowar sayings.

Har Chamuto tan hunar (every finger of her hand has its own skill).
Sometimes the skill of an artisan is admired in a common sentence such as Ghechote ghech koyan (her skill looks forward to being seen and appreciated). This shows that an instructor of art and craft is regarded as equal to one’s father or mother; it emphasises the way skilled hands and the wisdom within are embedded into Kho culture.

While dancing the traditional Chitrali dance barwazi , the dancers spread their sleeves of their woollen overcoat, the chogha, and imitate the actions of an eagle to represent honesty, strength, courage, wisdom and freedom.

Historically, the pious merchant was central to economic stability and played a significant role in the spread of Islam that resonated deeply in society. It penetrated the royal court, the market place and the workshop of the craftsman; it was carried into the villages and found its way into the nomadic tents of the desert and the steppe. The felt maker guilds in Konya,Turkey were an important centre for Sufi headwear, which represented the aesthetic qualities of purity and cleanliness with ethical principles of nobility and generosity.

Notably, the history of the Sufi is intertwined with wool. The widely accepted theory claims that the title itself came from suf, the Arabic word for wool, characteristic of the wandering ascetics who adopted the fabric for its simplicity and as a sign of detachment from the material world. Symbolically, this is seen in the choghas, the woollen overcoats and pakol, a Chitrali cap, the most visible commodities that have been traded and donned by local men of Peshawar, Chitral and Kabul.

Bismillah (In the name of God) is recited, followed by a short verse from the Quran, before the spinner and weaver start the process of making. Beauty plays a central role in Islam as it can transport the maker to a different world in which the individual feels a need to create something beautiful and pleasing to the eye. This is embedded in the traditional Islamic theory of aesthetics and the creative process within a traditional cosmology that is centred on the relationship between man, being and manifestation.

The connection between the master, apprentice and the divine is central to understanding the cultural transmission of skill in the production of Chitrali Shu. Both the maker and the trader of Shu are intertwined in qualities of unity, social ethics and cooperation. The pakol encapsulates the virtues of Islamic practices; the hat is worn during Muslim prayer, indicating the garment’s spiritual dimension.

"The income from 'Shu’ had a lot of ‘Barakat’ (blessing), this brought positivity, health and wellbeing to the entire family," explains Aktibar Shah. The last weaver in his village, he shares how weaving Shu has elevated him as a moral being: “As my feet pound on the pedals of the loom, its click and clack churn out rhythms which create a kaleidoscope of patterns and imbue me with a sense of clarity.”

Hajra, a shepherd from Sepokht, a village in Garam Chashma, shares a memory from her childhood where women would sit late during winter nights to tease wool and spin thread. The tradition of geeve (skilled collaboration) was an integral part of communities working together. It was a social organization promoting mutual cooperation, interaction and understanding. It saved time and at the same time ensured the best quality of Chitrali Shu. It provided a unique opportunity for the youth to learn collectively from aged and skilled ladies. In the long nights of winter, spinners were invited by the female head of a household. This invitation was considered an obligation because it came in rotation. Each family had to invite and each family had to attend. When skilled women were pooled together, they were given the challenge of teasing and spinning a certain quantity of wool before dawn. There were entertainers amongst the spinners who would amuse the gathering with anecdotes, songs, stories and jokes. A popular folk song called Ashurjan was a common feature of these sessions.

Anthropologist Tim Ingold mentions “culture and social life appear to be caught in an ongoing dialectic in which each, in a sense, constitutes the other, through the mediation of human agency.” The makers of Chitrali Shu are continuously working in cooperation and are in an evolving process of cohabitating with their domestic environment and landscape. Traditionally, teenagers would be asked by women to tease the wool and spin the threads on drop spindles. They would take the wool while taking the grazing animals in the morning and finish it as an assignment while out grazing till midday. As a result, Chitrali Shu has been a vehicle for generating shared knowledge through the relationship makers have with their material wool, sheep and indigenous techniques.