Palestinian women practice embroidery to preserve heritage and earn a living

In a special feature on Saturday, As Safir newspaper shed light on the craft of embroidery acquired by Palestinian women which features three main colors: beige, brown and burgundy and that became symbolic of an entire people forcedly expelled from its homeland. As Safir spoke to a number of women to get more insight on this deep-rooted side of their daily life. Jamila, for example, said that women in the past used to wear dresses embellished with embroidered drawings distinctive of their town of origin. Al-Khalil (Hebron), Jamila boasted, is famed for the extensive embroidery colors, Jerusalem for the big rose and Gaza for the cypress tree. The embroidered dresses are closely linked to age-old traditions of Palestine, Jamila said. While married women wore dark red and burgundy cross-stitched outfits, single women dressed in fiery red leaving the blue for their divorced or widow peers, Jamily added. Many Palestinian women have turned the craft of embroidery into a career, according to Burj Al Barajneh women residents. Wafaa, a mother of five, is one of them. Wafaa told As Safir reporter that, despite the modest pay she receives in exchange for her work, she practiced embroidery to support her husband in meeting household expenses. On this subject, the president of the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project at Mar Elias Palestinian Refugee Camp, Imad Mukhtar, pointed out that the cost of raw material, threads and fabrics, as well as the cost of participation in exhibitions, is relatively high. The distribution of expenses among women workers and designers, Mukhtar said, makes it hard to increase their wages, given the harsh economic situation and the decline of demand on handicrafts. He also mentioned that the suffering of Palestinians in Lebanon narrows down the prospects of jobs and careers they aspire to get. “The only choice left for us is to stand by our identity through the preservation of heritage, at any cost”, while confronting Israel’s persistent attempts to appropriate Palestinian heritage, Mukhtar concluded. (As Safir, December 24, 2016)