Palestinian Embroidery: A story of female resistance

Tatreez can be regarded as a language that always had its roots in Palestinian identity. Practiced and developed by Palestinian women over the decades, it took on many forms and would tell many stories. With its evolution always depicting history, Palestinian embroidery dress ranged from telling joyful stories to using its motifs and styles to express its nations struggles against occupation to eventually being lifted to a national symbol of resistance. In order to explore the evolution of tatreez, I will guide you through its different states throughout the years, starting with its form as a traditional practice, to its alteration during the Nakba (1948) and finally to an act of resistance during the first Intifada uprising (1987-1993).

Traditional Palestinian Embroidery

While traditional Palestinian embroidery is set in the 19th and early 20th century, embroidery as a craft was present in the region as early as 1500BC. Tatreez is a traditionally female craft that was practiced by fellahin, village, women and was passed on from generation to generation in form of a social practice. Embroidered dress functioned as a medium of expression, with which women would demonstrate their origin, their economic and social status and moreover details about their lives. It was central to a woman’s life, reflecting the rite of passage from girlhood into adulthood and typically being part of a woman’s wedding trousseau, although it is important to mention that everyday dresses differed from the heavily embroidered wedding dresses.

The dress’s style differed from region to region and was not only characterized by different embroidery patterns, fabrics, and dyes but would also be unique in terms of its cut. This could be a stylistic choice or be linked to a practical reason, for example as seen in the long, pointed sleeves of the Jericho thob, which were used as a tool to carry objects. The fabrics used for the making of dresses were typically cotton, linen, wool and silk, and were either locally produced in Palestine or imported from Egypt, Syria and sometimes even India or Europe. Natural dyes that derived from insects or local plants provided vibrant colors and thus were continued to be used in the late 19th and early 20th century, in spite of the beginning of utilization of synthetic dyes during this period. Different dyes would have different meanings and varied from region to region. The red thread, however, was dominant all over Palestine, with its colors representing “happiness and life-blood”.

Nevertheless, the most distinct feature of a thobe would be its embroidered motifs. Women would decorate their dresses with symbols of nature and everyday life as well as various geometric shapes and stitches. Embroidered dresses in Jaffa or in Mediterranean villages would carry motifs of oranges, olives, and pomegranates, whereas women in Hebron, which was known for its grapes, would use a vine leaf motif. Next to natural motifs, women would often use their thobes to express their wishes and aspirations. Therefore, a woman with the desire to have children, would embroider “doll” figures on her dress, as seen in the Hebron region. Moreover, a dress could reflect a woman’s stage of life, and would be worn inside-out or dyed in indigo in periods of grief in order to hide the bright embroideries, while widows would only remarry when the dress’s original colors would become visible again.

A thobe was by no means a finished object. It accompanied women throughout their life and was altered in regards of their needs. Everyday dresses would often be made out of combined pieces of embroidery or fabric, since an inherited piece of fabric would be used to replace a worn-out part. Embroidered dress can indeed be regarded as a language and a strong medium of expression that would reveal the wearer’s origin and social status and would reflect their aspirations. It is known that other embroiderers were able to “read” this language and hence would know a lot about the wearer by visual information only.

Palestinian Embroidery after 1948

Although this language was not entirely lost, it was altered a lot in the middle of the 20 th century, with the 1948 Nakba marking the disorganization of every part of Palestinian society and traditional Palestinian embroidery taking a massive turn, not only in style but also in means of production. The Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, was the mass displacement of approximately 750.000 Palestinians by Zionist forces when establishing the state of Israel between 1947-49. According to the documentation of the United Nations, more than five hundred villages were demolished, which led to the violent displacement of more than half of the rural population.

With the mass displacement, fellahi women would find themselves living in refugee camps, with neither being able to access the high-quality materials they were using before, nor having any income to support their embroidery. The mass displacement of Palestinian people and the need to share a common, national identity, rather than a regional one, resulted in a major change in tatreez, alternating the embroidery motifs and styles and leading to their homogenization. Amongst other stylistic changes, it caused the distinction of rare stitches, making the already popular cross-stitch almost exclusive in its use today. Women continued to embroider dresses, however, they would now have simpler forms, consist out of cheap synthetic materials or carry machine-made embroideries. Moreover, fellahin women were often unable to afford embroidered dress anymore; hence it was the wealthy that started commissioning and wearing it.

Nevertheless, embroidery had already become a symbol of Palestinian identity and a direct evidence that Palestine was not “a land without people”, as Zionists claimed it to be.

Tatreez during the first Intifada Uprisring

Despite the already major changes of Palestinian embroidery during the decades after the Nakba, the status of tatreez experienced a radical turn during the first Intifada uprising. It is this period that marks the birth of the Intifada dresses, ultimately lifting embroidery to an act of national resistance, turning it into an even stronger symbol of national identity that even challenged social and gender roles.

The first Intifada uprising (1987-1993) emerged in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and was marked by actions of civil disobedience, like demonstrations, strikes, and the refusal to pay taxes, with all actions having the mutual goal to not support the Israeli economy. Before the Intifada, traditional gender roles in the resistance were very dominant. Whereas men were depicted to be actively fighting for the liberation of their nation, women would carry the involuntary image of the embroidered woman or the peasant woman, a symbol of “soft resistance”, as Rachel Dedman puts it, that emerged in the 1970s. With the start of the Intifada, women, although being very active in every aspect of it, still had to endure this dichotomy of power.

Ultimately, it was tatreez that challenged these patriarchal structures and made embroidery a revolutionary practice. When Israel banned the Palestinian flag from Palestinian homes and the public, women used their craft to actively and autonomously step into resistance and developed the Intifada dress, which they would then wear at the protests. Since other forms of the flag were now banned, the Intifada dress functioned as a display for national identity and was characterized by its rich language in terms of embroidered nationlist symbols. This actively shifted tatreez into the political sphere and once again changed its characteristics. Women would embroider Intifada dresses with the Palestinian flag or maps of Palestine’s historic borders or use motifs like the Dome of Rock in Jerusalem, the word “Palestine” and the letters P.L.O. (Palestine Liberation Organization) or even embroideries like a dove of peace or a phoenix rising from the ashes. Women used the colors of their flag for their embroidery, a method that also led to the alteration of traditional motifs. Embroidering dresses was hard work and it took women several months or even years to
finish one piece, while simultaneously putting them at great risk.

In order to illustrate the changes of tatreez during the period of the Intifada uprising, I would like to present an Intifada dress from the collection of Tiraz: Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress.

The black fabric of the dress is interrupted by the colorful designs of the embroideries that are found on the chest panel, the sleeves and the two long stripes on the body of the dress. This dress can instantly be identified as an Intifada dress, due to the abundance of the Palestinian flags embroidered. When taking a closer look, more national symbols and typical characteristics of Intifada dresses can be discovered. At the upper part of the chest panel, one can find the word “Palestine” embroidered in red thread, accompanied by Palestinian flags, the Dome of Rock and the historical map of Palestine. Although Intifada dresses were dominated by political symbols and lacked of regional identity since they are dated in the after-Nakba period, traditional embroidery motifs where still integrated in the dresses. Therefore, traditional motifs of previously regional origin, are now found next to political symbols.

The chest panel, or qabbah, we see in this dress, could be linked to the typical triangular chest panel of the region of Gaza, which was distinct to the area. Hanging from the chest panel, we can find the traditional motif of a cypress tree, though it is embroidered in red, green and white, resembling the national flag. Another traditional motif found in this part of the chest panel is the S-shaped symbol, which is known as the “leech” symbol that symbolized luck and has its origin in Ramallah. More nationalist symbols, typical for Intifada dresses, can be found in the frontal area of the dress. Embroideries of the Dome of Rock in Jerusalem are very dominant in this dress and are linked to the wish of Palestinians to declare Jerusalem as their capital. When looking closely, the red initials P.L.O. can be found stitched between the Palestinian flag and the Dome of Rock, with the “P” resembling a flower bud, completing the embroidered stem beneath it. Additionally, typical colorful patterns of floral and natural designs complement the nationalist symbols.

Tatreez as an act of Female Resistance

To conclude, I would like to place tatreez into the bigger picture of embroidery in history and explain its function as an act of female resistance. Historically, embroidery and femininity have always been connected to each other, though often in a contradicting way. Roszika Parker describes this in “The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine”, when saying that “Embroidery has provided a source of pleasure and power for women, while being indissolubly linked to their powerlessness”. Although Parker’s argument is stated in a western context, it could be applied to the practice of tatreez before the period of the Intifada. I would like to argue that during the Intifada uprising, Palestinian Embroidery developed into a feminist practice. With the power of their craft, women stepped into politics, and so did tatreez. But most importantly, they accomplished to reappropriate a craft that underwent massive changes due to the occupation and the displacement of the Palestinian population. Eventually, they were able to transform tatreez into a symbol of national identity and resistance. No longer just embroidery, tatreez became a testament to survival, a declaration of belonging, and an unbreakable thread connecting people in the fight for justice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ahmed, Ammarah. “Palestinian Embroidery: Stitching the Fabric of Identity and Resistance.” Amaliah, February 5, 2024. https://www.amaliah.com/post/67503/palestinian-embroidery-stitching-fabric-identity-resistance.

Allenby, Jeni. "Re-inventing cultural heritage: Palestinian traditional costume and embroidery since 1948. Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, 2002.

Dedman, Rachel. “The Politicisation of Palestinian Embroidery Since 1948.” In Dangerous Bodies, 97–116. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2023. Imeu, “Quick Facts: The Palestinian Nakba (‘Catastrophe’) | IMEU,” Last modified March 29, 2024. https://imeu.org/article/quick-facts-the-palestinian-nakba.

Parker, Rozsika. “The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine,” Womans Art Journal 12, no. 1 (January 1, 1991): 45, htps://doi.org/10.2307/1358191.

Saca Iman Maha Saca and University of Chicago Oriental Institute Museum. Embroidering Identities: A Century of Palestinian Clothing. Chicago: Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago, 2006. 

Sherwell, Tina. “Palestinian Costume, the Intifada and the Gendering of Nationalist
Discourse.” Journal of gender studies 5, no. 3 (1996): 293–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.1996.9960651.

Tatreez and Tea. “Printable Pattern No. 006: Leech (Alaqa) — Tatreez & Tea,” Tatreez & Tea, Last modified March 29, 2024. https://www.tatreezandtea.com/shop/alaqa.

IMAGES

Bethlehem Dress (Palestinian Thobe), 19th century. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bethlehem_Dress_(Palestinian_Thobe).jpg. 

Othman, Ma’moun. Back skirt panel of a village woman's dress (thobe) from Bayt Dajan in Jaffa area, embroidered with Palestinian patterns, 1920s. From "Tiraz: Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress & Textile Museum" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Back_skirt_panel_of_Jaffa_dress_(Palestinian_Thobe).jpg.

Othman, Ma’moun. Palestinian Embroidery, Cypress tree pattern, Jaffa. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cypress_trees_pattern_(Palesti-nian_embroidery-Jaffa_area).jpg.

Othman, Ma’moun. Palestinian Embroidery, Leech pattern or S-pattern, Ramallah.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leech_pattern_(Palestinian_embroidery).jpg
 

Traboulsi, Tanya. Intifada Dress from Collection of “Tiraz: Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress“, The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, Palestine.