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Palestinian Women's Activism to Resist Genocide through Embroidery and Cultural Dress
Abstract
This paper explores women’s cultural and business initiatives in occupied Palestinian Territories and Jordan to revitalize traditional Palestinian embroidery and cultural dress. It investigates women’s activism in repositioning cultural clothing from a domestic activity and craft into globally marketed artistry within national and transnational spheres/discourses. It explores how women, from entrepreneurs to designers, have given momentum to the traditional garb and embroidery as national symbols and simultaneously as part of their transnational identities, by redesigning and diversifying its use. Drawing on oral interviews and visual data collected in Jordan and Palestinian Territories from women with business networks in USA and Canada as well, the paper delves into the cultural, financial, and historical dimensions of cultural clothing industry in operating as an anti-colonial and non-violent form of resistance since 1948. The paper first provides a historical background exploring the changing meanings of traditional Palestinian embroidery and style as well as the impacts of historical developments and foreign forces on Palestinian cultural clothing. From the impacts of Ottoman rule and British Mandate to the critical role of Nakba in 1948 and the circumstances in refugee camps, it shows connections between clothing and mechanisms of colonialism, Orientalism, and occupation. Second, the paper focuses on women’s efforts in the last twenty years to explore their use, revitalization, and repurposing of cultural clothing, its meanings embedded in politics, culture, and historically specific circumstances, and its transformative power for women’s status. Finally, the paper discusses resistance against genocidal violence, cultural appropriation, and erasure with a focus on the mass destruction in Gaza in the recent months. Women’s initiatives demonstrate that resistance against violence may take creative, artistic, and cultural forms. Women’s new designs of Kufiyah, historically produced for men, as diverse pieces of clothing and accessories have not only contributed to the creative methods of preserving culture and reclaiming identity but also to international solidarity for the Palestinian cause. Women address a global audience through social media to commercialize their productions and to circulate their political messages. The displays of embroidery and Kufiyah in public spaces by Palestinians and non-Palestinians as symbols of solidarity is giving them an international momentum, incorporated into their local and national meanings. Ultimately, the paper provides insights into the various facets of the multilayered functioning and meanings of cultural clothing and its revitalization, and thus contributes to our understanding of diverse forms of non-violent resistance adapted by indigenous communities.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Palestine
Sub Area
None