The politics of Palestine

The Palestinian garments in the British Museum all date from the 19th and 20th centuries, when Palestine came under a succession of different ruling powers. Until the end of the First World War, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. Then there were three decades of British Mandate rule from 1918 until the establishment of the State of Israel in northern, western and southern Palestine in 1948.

During the hostilities surrounding this cataclysmic event, for Palestinians, an estimated three quarters of a million people fled in fear or were driven from their homes by Zionist forces, and became refugees in eastern Palestine (`the West Bank’) or neighbouring Arab countries (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt).

After this the West Bank came under Jordanian rule, and the land around Gaza (`the Gaza Strip’) in south west Palestine came under Egypt. A second major wave of refugees was created by the Six Day War between Israel, Egypt and Jordan in 1967, during which Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Israel has remained in military occupation of these territories for the past forty years, although the newly created Palestinian National Authority was granted limited powers in the West Bank in 1994, and has had nominal jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip since 2005. So the whole of historic Palestine is presently ruled by Israel or under its military control.

Palestinian fashion

Palestinian dress, both male and female, was always influenced by that of the ruling classes, especially that of the townspeople, many of whom adopted Turkish or European fashions.

The farmers and traders of the Palestinian villages, who made up most of the population, also included foreign fabrics, motifs and techniques in their dress.

Women’s embroidery was also influenced by missionaries and educationalists who visited Palestine from the early 19th century, and by the advent of European embroidery threads and pattern books in the 1930s. However village dress was always distinctively different from urban dress in the period, especially women's clothes.

Dresses and head veils were made from locally woven Palestinian or Syrian fabrics, and ceremonial garments were colourfully decorated with patchwork and embroidery in Syrian satins, taffetas and silk threads.

The costume and embroidery of Palestinian village women has always expressed aspects of their social identity. `Our embroidery was like a language’, as one woman put it.

The colours, patterns and styles of their garments reflected women’s gender, age, marital status, economic situation, and their regional and village origins. So a woman’s dress would constantly change according to her personal situation and stage in life, and in response to conditions in the wider environment.

Before 1948, there were over 800 agricultural villages scattered throughout Palestine, and each region and cluster of villages had its own styles of costume and embroidery.

This diversity wasn’t entirely because of restricted mobility: villagers from wide catchment areas mixed at town markets, and at annual pilgrimages to religious shrines. Distinctive regional and village styles also continued after motor transport, and have even been maintained among refugees – some of whom have never lived in their homeland. However, the political situation since 1967 has increased the nationalistic significance of traditional village costume and its modern variants.

Now, sadly, fewer women can afford to make or embroider their own garments, and most have adopted European or plain `Islamic’ modes of dress. But many are embroidering articles for sale abroad in order to help support their families during the dire economic conditions they are suffering under Israeli occupation.

This heavily embroidered garment was the main article a bride prepared for her trousseau, and which she wore for the climactic procession of her wedding celebrations.

Red was predominantly worn by married women during their childbearing years. The opening in the skirt had sexual connotations, and went out of fashion after the First World War when contact with Turkish attitudes made villagers feel ashamed of its symbolism.

The deep indigo blue of the linen fabric was achieved by several dye-baths, so was more expensive and prestigious than lighter blues. Indigo was grown in the Jordan valley, and in the 19th century large areas of ground near dying workshops would be covered by blue cloth laid out to dry. The main pattern of this dress is a 'tall palms' motif , the main symbolic marker of Ramallah and its surrounding villages.

All village women wore veils or scarves over their heads, but their colours, styles and decoration differed from area to area. This veil is for ceremonial or festive occasions, and is of linen embroidered with a pattern of cypress trees and chevrons (known as `necklaces’).

Women acquired their first collection of fine clothes in their wedding trousseaus, which comprised articles made by the bride or her relatives, and others commissioned and paid for by the groom. This rare picture of a village bride was taken in 1932-33 by Olga Tufnell, a British archaeologist, in Qubeibeh ibn Awad west of Hebron. The bride is wearing a dress with a red taffeta panel on the skirt and heavy embroidery. There is a panel of coins on her chest, and she has a special bridal headdress encrusted with coins on her head.

The gifts exchanged at marriage reflected the economic circumstances of the families, the village and the times. In prosperous periods such as the 1930s, brideprices soared, and trousseaus became larger and more elaborate. Women were always on the lookout for new designs that would excite the envy and admiration of others, especially professional embroiderers who were always seeking a competitive edge, and who were the prime innovators of village fashion.

Villagers had close relationships with the cloth merchants in their local towns from whom they bought their trousseau materials. Some even entrusted their valuables to them for safe keeping. A merchant who fled Lydda in 1948 praised the honesty of the village men. When he left his home he was owed some £8000, and decades later men were still seeking him out to pay their debts. He was confident that "someday the rest will pay".

After marriage, women wore headdresses with silver coins attached in different styles according to region. These symbolised their marital status and their social and economic worth. The coins were a dowry from the bride’s father (usually paid for after he received the brideprice payment from the groom). The money remained a woman’s property to keep, add to or spend as she wished.

Fashions in women’s headdresses also changed through time. After the mid twentieth century, the caps or bonnets with coins went out of fashion among the young as gold jewellery became more fashionable.

In the 1930s, the first girls’ schools opened, and girls in the villages of the Jaffa area adopted this European-influenced crocheted cap as a sign that they were more modern and advanced than older women with their coin-covered caps.

Jacket (taqsireh), Bethlehem area, 19th or early 20th century. Bethlehem was one of the richest villages in Palestine, and the fashion leader for southern Palestine. Many Bethlehem women were professional embroiderers, who were commissioned to prepare dresses and jackets such as this for the groom’s contribution to the bridal trousseau.

They were famous for the technique of couching, which involves sewing silk or metallic cord onto the main fabric. The cord was twisted into curvilinear and floral designs, and filled with satin stitch, as in this example. Bethlehem embroiderers were influenced and inspired by the decorations on the uniforms of Ottoman officials and soldiers, and by the elaborate vestments worn by the Christian clergy (Bethlehem was a predominantly Christian Arab village).

As women grew older, they wore plainer clothes. These two women Halimeh and Ruqiyeh, were the daughters of the shaykh of Beit Dajan near Jaffa, and were fashion leaders in their village in their youth. During the hostilities of 1948 the entire population fled the village, never to return, and most now live in refugee camps in the Gaza strip or Jordan. This photo was taken by Shelagh Weir in 1974 in the Hussein refugee camp in Amman.

You can find out more about the modern embroidery industry in Palestine here

Shelagh Weir's book Embroidery from Palestine is published by the British Museum Press in the Fabric folios series, 2006, price £10.99 (ISBN 0 -7141-2573-3).

Her previous books include Palestinian Embroidery (with Serene Shahid), 1988 (1989) and Palestinian Costume, 1989 (1991), both published by British Museum Press.