17 OF 2017: THE MOST IMPACTFUL AND INSPIRING EGYPTIANS OF THE YEAR. When a 27-year-old Egyptian girl obtained permission from the Ministry of Antiquities this year to lead her own excavation in the Nile Delta, she made national headlines. “While I’m digging the majority of my team is male, but I get a lot of respect once they see what I’m doing. They want to know more about their own towns and villages, so we kind of teach them and they teach us,” Nora Shawki tells us.