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Palestinian keffiyeh

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The Palestinian version of the keffiyeh

The Palestinian keffiyeh (Arabic: كوفية, romanized: kūfiyya) is a distinctly patterned black-and-white keffiyeh.

White keffiyehs had been traditionally worn by Palestinian peasants and bedouins to protect from the sun, when Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire.[1] Its use as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism and resistance dates back to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, which saw its wider use by more sections of Palestinian society.[2]

Outside of the Middle East and North Africa, the keffiyeh first gained popularity among pro-Palestinian activists; it is widely considered to be an icon of solidarity with the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

History

Ottoman period

Palestinian shepherd wearing a white keffiyeh near Jerusalem, 1919

Traditionally worn by Palestinian farmers, during the Ottoman period the keffiyeh signalled that the wearer was rural, in contrast to the tarboosh worn by the urban classes.[1]

Mandatory Palestine

Palestinian rebels wearing white keffitehs, posing with their rifles and a Palestinian Arab flag emblazoned with a cross and crescent, 1937

Early Jewish migrants to Mandatory Palestine adopted the keffiyeh because they saw it as part of the authentic local lifestyle.[3]

The white keffiyeh worn by Palestinian men of any rank, became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism during the Arab Revolt of the 1930s.[4][5][6] This reached a peak in 1938, when the leadership of the revolt ordered that the urban classes replace their traditional tarbush hats with the keffiyeh. The move was intended to create unity, as well as allow the rebels to blend in when they entered the cities.[7]

Post-1948

Palestinian political leader Yasser Arafat in his iconic fishnet-style black-and-white keffiyeh, 1974

Its prominence increased during the 1960s with the beginning of the Palestinian resistance movement and its adoption by Palestinian politician Yasser Arafat.[5]

The black-and-white fishnet pattern keffiyeh would later become Arafat's symbol and he would rarely be seen without it; only occasionally would he wear a military cap, or, in colder climates, a Russian-style ushanka hat. Arafat would wear his keffiyeh in a semi-traditional way, wrapped around his head via an agal. He also wore a similarly patterned piece of cloth in the neckline of his military fatigues.[8][9] Early on, he had made it his personal trademark to drape the scarf over his right shoulder only, arranging it in the rough shape of a triangle, to resemble the outlines of the territory claimed by Palestine. This way of wearing the keffiyeh became a symbol of Arafat as a person and political leader, and it has not been imitated by other Palestinian leaders.[10]

Another Palestinian figure associated with the keffiyeh is Leila Khaled, a member of the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Several photographs of Khaled circulated in the Western newspapers after the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 and the Dawson's Field hijackings. These photos often included Khaled wearing a keffiyeh in the style of a Muslim woman's hijab, wrapped around the head and shoulders. The most famous of these images is a photograph taken by Pulitzer Prize winner Eddie Adams. The photographs brought publicity to the hijackings and rendered Khaled an iconic status within the broader Palestinian liberation movement as well as within leftist movements globally. This was unusual, as the keffiyeh is associated with Arab masculinity, and many believe this to be something of a fashion statement by Khaled, denoting her equality with men in the Palestinian resistance.[11][12]

The colors of the stitching in a keffiyeh are also vaguely associated with Palestinians' political sympathies. Traditional black and white keffiyehs became associated with Fatah. Later, red and white keffiyehs were adopted by Palestinian Marxists, such as the PFLP.[13]

Popularity with pro-Palestinian activists

The wearing of the keffiyeh often comes with criticism from various political factions in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The slang "keffiyeh kinderlach" refers to young left-wing American Jews, particularly college students, who sport a keffiyeh around the neck as a political/fashion statement. European activists have also worn the keffiyeh.[14][15]

While Western protesters wear differing styles and shades of keffiyeh, the most prominent is the black-and-white keffiyeh. This is typically worn around the neck like a neckerchief, simply knotted in the front with the fabric allowed to drape over the back. Other popular styles include rectangular-shaped scarves with the basic black-and-white pattern in the body, with the ends knitted in the form of the Palestinian flag. Since the Al-Aqsa Intifada, these rectangular scarves have increasingly appeared with a combination of the Palestinian flag and Al-Aqsa printed on the ends of the fabric.[16]

A woman wearing the Palestinian fishnet-style keffiyeh in Paris, France, 2010

In 2006, the prime minister of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero gave a speech in which he criticized Israel harshly, then accepted a keffiyeh from members of the audience and had his photo taken wearing it.[17]

The keffiyeh print has been many times used in fashion by brands such as Topshop, ASOS, Cecilie Copenhagen, Boohoo or the Israeli brand Dodo Bar Or, bringing controversy and debates about cultural appropriation.[18]

In 2007, the American clothing store chain Urban Outfitters stopped selling keffiyehs after a user on the Jewish blog Jewschool criticized the retailer for labelling the item as an anti-war woven scarf".[5] The action led to the retailer withdrawing the product.[5][19]

Music

British-Palestinian hip-hop rapper Shadia Mansour denounced cultural appropriation of the keffiyeh, defending it as a symbol of Palestinian solidarity, in her first single, "al-Kūfīyah 'Arabīyah" ("The keffiyeh is Arab"). She performs wearing a traditional Palestinian thawb and proclaims in her song: "This is how we wear the keffiyeh/The Arab keffiyeh" and "I'm like the keffiyeh/However you rock me/Wherever you leave me/I stay true to my origins/Palestinian." On-stage in New York, she introduced the song by saying, "You can take my falafel and hummus, but don't fucking touch my keffiyeh."[20]

Symbolism

The patterns on the Palestinian keffiyeh symbolize various themes:

Production

Palestinian keffiyehs are now largely imported from China. With the scarf's growing popularity in the 2000s, Chinese manufacturers entered the market, driving Palestinians out of the business.[23] For five decades, Yasser Hirbawi had been the only Palestinian manufacturer of keffiyehs, making them across 16 looms at the Hirbawi Textile Factory in Hebron. In 1990, all 16 of the looms were functioning, making around 750 keffiyehs per day. By 2010, only two looms were used, making a 300 keffiyehs per week. Unlike the Chinese-manufactured ones, Hirbawi uses cotton only. Hirbawi's son Izzat stated the importance of creating the Palestinian symbol in Palestine: "the keffiyeh is a tradition of Palestine and it should be made in Palestine. We should be the ones making it."[24] After the 2023 Gaza war demand has doubled – it could not be met because Hirbawi has a monthly production of 5,000.[25]

A loom at work making a Palestinian keffiyeh at the Hirbawi factory in Hebron, 2015

See also

References

  1. ^ a b William Roseberry; Jay O'Brien (8 January 2021). Golden Ages, Dark Ages: Imagining the Past in Anthropology and History. UC Press. pp. 170–. ISBN 978-0-520-32744-3. While the kufiya signified social inferiority (and rural backwardness), the tarbush signaled superiority (and urbane sophistication).
  2. ^ Sottile, Zoe (28 November 2023). "The Palestinian keffiyeh explained: How this scarf became a national symbol". CNN. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  3. ^ Langer, Armin (5 December 2023). "How the keffiyeh – a practical garment used for protection against the desert sun – became a symbol of Palestinian identity". University of Florida. Archived from the original on 3 April 2024.
  4. ^ Haidari, Niloufar (11 December 2023). "From Yasser Arafat to Madonna: how the Palestinian keffiyeh became a global symbol". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d Kim, Kibum (2 November 2007). "Where Some See Fashion, Others See Politics". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021.
  6. ^ Torstrick, Rebecca (2004). Culture and Customs of Israel. Greenwood. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-313-32091-0.
  7. ^ Ted Swedenburg (8 January 2021). "Popular Memory and the Palestinian National Past". In William Roseberry and Jay O'Brien (ed.). Golden Ages, Dark Ages: Imagining the Past in Anthropology and History. University of California Press. pp. 170–. ISBN 978-0-520-32744-3. In August 1938, at the height of the insurgency, the rebel leadership commanded all townsmen to discard the tarbush and don the kufiya. The order was issued to help the rebels blend in when they entered the cities, but it was also a move in the wider social struggle... Official colonial sources, which noted that the fashion spread with "lightning rapidity," saw this more as the result of a conspiracy than as a manifestation of the spirit of unity (Palestine Post, 2 September 1938). Once the rebellion ended, the effendis of the town reassumed the tarnish, owing in part to British pressure (Morton 1957:98-100).
  8. ^ Renfro, Evan (2018). "Stitched together, torn apart: The keffiyeh as cultural guide". International Journal of Cultural Studies. 21 (6): 571–586. doi:10.1177/1367877917713266. ISSN 1367-8779.
  9. ^ Shirazi-Mahajan, Faegheh (1993). "The politics of clothing in the middle east: The case of Hijab in post-revolution Iran". Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies. 2 (2): 54–63. doi:10.1080/10669929308720032. ISSN 1066-9922.
  10. ^ Zulaihah, Sitti (23 December 2023). "Keffiyeh trend on social media as a form of solidarity for Palestine". Digital Theory, Culture & Society. 1 (2): 135–144. doi:10.61126/dtcs.v1i2.27. ISSN 3031-707X.
  11. ^ Bakr, Sarah W. Abu (1 March 2016). "A Stranger in the Gallery: Conceptions of the Body Through Art and Theory". InVisible Culture (24). doi:10.47761/494a02f6.e4f732fc.
  12. ^ Crone, Christine; Windfeld, Frederik Carl; Warrington, Anna (8 August 2023). "Seeing the future through a rear-view mirror: On the politics of revitalizing secular bio-icons in the Middle East". Mediterranean Politics. 28 (4): 639–661. doi:10.1080/13629395.2022.2028495. ISSN 1362-9395.
  13. ^ Binur, Yoram (1990). My Enemy, My Self. Penguin. p. xv.
  14. ^ Tipton, Frank B. (2003). A History of Modern Germany Since 1815. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 598. ISBN 0-8264-4910-7.
  15. ^ Mudde, Cas (2005). Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 0-415-35594-X.
  16. ^ Gandolfo, K. Luisa (1 January 2010). "Representations of Conflict". Radical History Review. 2010 (106): 47–69. doi:10.1215/01636545-2009-020. ISSN 0163-6545.
  17. ^ "Spanish minister objects - Says criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic". The New York Times. 20 July 2006.
  18. ^ Bramley, Ellie Violet (9 August 2019). "The keffiyeh: symbol of Palestinian struggle falls victim to fashion". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 May 2021.
  19. ^ "How the keffiyeh became a Palestinian symbol of resistance". Salon.
  20. ^ Andersen, Janne Louise (4 September 2011). "The Passion, Politics and Power of Shadia Mansour". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  21. ^ Ajlouni, Eman (25 October 2023). "The Palestinian Keffiyeh and The Jordanian Shemagh". Arab America.
  22. ^ "The Significance of the Keffiyeh". KUVRD. 12 May 2021.
  23. ^ Sonja Sharp (22 June 2009). "Your Intifada: Now Made in China!". Mother Jones.
  24. ^ "The Last Keffiyeh Factory In Palestine". Palestine Monitor. 24 June 2010. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011.
  25. ^ Alkousaa, Riham; Foroudi, Layli (15 December 2023). "Palestinian keffiyeh scarves - a controversial symbol of solidarity". Reuters.
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