St. Mary & Franklin Banner-Tribune · Morgan City, Louisiana · 12 February 2019

CP-2019-005

Iconic Palestinian robe fashions a new policital symbol

The Associated Press, Jerusalem

Transcribed from the clipping

“JERUSALEM (AP) — The traditional brightly embroidered dress of Palestinian women known as the ‘thobe’ was not the type of garment one would expect to become a pop political symbol. Now it’s gaining prominence as a softer expression of Palestinian nationalism, competing even with the classic keffiyeh — the headscarf donned by young stone-throwing Palestinian men protesting Israel’s occupation. The robe, adorned with elaborate hand-stitched embroidery, requires months of grueling labor. Some thobes fetch thousands of dollars. The traditional textiles call to mind a bygone era of Palestinian peasant women sewing on a break from the fields. Last month, Rashida Tlaib proudly wore her mother’s thobe to her historic swearing-in as the first female Palestinian American member of Congress, inspiring masses of women around the world… ‘The historic thobe conjures an ideal of pure and untouched Palestine, before the occupation,’ said Rachel Dedman, curator of a recent exhibit at the Palestinian Museum focused on the evolution of Palestinian embroidery. ‘It’s more explicitly tied to history and heritage than politics. That’s what makes it a brilliant symbol.’… Thobe patterns also expressed women’s different social positions: not for marriage, single but looking for marriage, blue with multi-colored stitches for widows considering re-marriage… During the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the 1980s, the thobe bloomed with guns, doves and flowers. When Israeli soldiers confiscated Palestinian flags at protests, women wove forbidden national maps and colors into their dresses, according to the Palestinian museum exhibit… ‘A woman typically has one thobe to wear on occasions throughout her life — it’s very expensive and impractical,’ said Maysoun Abed, director of a thobe exhibit in the West Bank city of Al-Bireh, near Ramallah. ‘But demand for the thobe still runs high as a way of expressing patriotism.’… Girls are asking for shorter and less embroidered versions, said Rajaa Ghazawneh, a thobe designer in the West Bank town of al-Birch… ‘Rashida has become a model for Palestinian women everywhere — a strong woman proud of her national identity who can reach high,’ said Saca.… Natalie Tahhan, a designer based in east Jerusalem, produces capes from digital prints that replicate traditional embroidery stitches, ‘connecting tradition with what is new and stylish.’… ‘These dresses are our link between the past and future,’ Saca said.”

Context added by this archive

Six Palestinian women named in one story, all of them talking about a dress: a museum curator, three designers, an exhibition director, and Maha Saca of the Palestinian Heritage Center in Bethlehem, who gets the last line. The occupation is present but is not the subject. The headline misspells political, and is kept as printed. On the page it runs beside a travel advertisement, Beauty from Bali to Jakarta.

Cite this item

"Iconic Palestinian robe fashions a new policital symbol," St. Mary & Franklin Banner-Tribune, 12 February 2019. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2019-005. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2019-005

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