2023-11-29 07:44:00
(CNN) — Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, three Palestinian college students were shot in Vermont, two of them while wearing a traditional Palestinian headscarf known as coldin a crime that their families say was “driven by hate.”
Although kufiyas are worn throughout the Middle East, in recent decades they have come to be identified in particular as a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance. In the pro-Palestinian protests Around the world amid the war between Israel and Hamas, protesters wore kufiyas around their necks or used them to cover their faces.
Originally worn by nomadic herders and farmers, the kufilla or kufiya “have become an iconic garment worn around the world by anti-colonial revolutionaries, activists and the like, although elders and farmers still wear it in the traditional way,” Majeed said. Malhas is a Palestinian-Canadian journalist and doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Toronto.
Historians trace the history of the keffiyeh to the nomadic Bedouin farmers of historic Palestine, who used the scarves as protection from the sun and sand. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
What is a kufiya?
A kufiya (sometimes written kufiyya or kaffiyeh in English) is a traditional scarf worn in many parts of the Middle East. It is usually black and white or red and white, with different patterns and tassels on the edge.
Wafa Ghnaim, a researcher and curator specializing in the history of Palestinian clothing, told CNN that until the 1920s, kufiyas, also called hattahs or shamaghs, were worn primarily by Nomadic Bedouin men in historic Palestine.
Ghnaim, a researcher at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, told CNN that in her work she often sees 19th-century kufiyas made of cotton, silk and fine wool, and incorporating white, black, green and red threads.
“Every person, male or female, wore headdresses in this part of the world. The villagers and townspeople had different headdress styles than the Bedouins,” he explained.
“Bedouin men would fold the kufiya diagonally and secure it to their head using an ‘aqal or head rope.”
In addition to acting as a visual marker of Bedouin identity, scarves serve a practical purpose: they help protect the wearer from the fierce sun and sand of the desert.
And the patterns woven into each kufiya “reflects different aspects of the Palestinian land, like the olive tree and the fishing net,” Malhas told CNN.
The red and white kufiya is also sometimes linked to Jordanian nationalism because British commanders wore it as part of the uniform of the Desert Patrol, a Bedouin unit of the Arab Legion. But Palestinian activists and resistance fighters have worn kufiyas of all colors, according to Malhas.
In addition to the traditional style worn on the head, today scarves are also worn around the neck and as shawls over the shoulders.
What the kufiya means to Palestinians
For many Palestinians and people of Arab descent around the world, the kuyifa serves as a crucial link to their culture.
Dalia Jacobs, a Palestinian brand strategist and creative director, told CNN that she wears a kuyifa made in her hometown of Hebron when she travels abroad.
Wearing the kuyifa feels “like carrying it home on my shoulders,” she said, describing the scarf as “a symbol of resistance and existence.”
AS, a 26-year-old Palestinian-American who lives in North Carolina and asked to be identified only by her initials due to privacy concerns, said she sees the kuyifa as “a comfortable blanket for a child.”
The kufiya “says who I am and always carries my family’s history with me,” he told CNN.
Ghnaim similarly said that kuyifa reminds her of her father, while tatreez (traditional Palestinian embroidery) reminds her of her mother. To combine the two pieces of the Palestinian cultural heritageused traditional embroidery techniques to adorn her black and white kufiya.
“My best memories are when I made this kufiya and wore it with pride and joy for my beautiful people.”
Yasser Arafat, who served as president of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and later president of the Palestinian Authority, was rarely seen without a black and white kufiya on his head and over one shoulder. (Credit: Georges De Keerle/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
How the kufiya became a symbol of resistance
In addition to symbolizing cultural identity, the kufiya also acquired a political dimension, like many other garments linked to cultural or religious interests. Heritage and nationalism.
Ghnaim traced this political dimension back to the 1930s. During the Arab Revolt, between 1936 and 1939, when Palestinians sought to end the British occupation and establish their own independent country, Palestinians of all social classes and religions wore the kufiya. white and black to symbolize their solidarity, according to Ghnaim.
During the 1960s, there was another resurgence of the kufiya as a political symbol, with the scarf worn by both men and women. Yasser Arafat, who for decades was president of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was often photographed wearing the black and white kufiya, further cementing the scarf as a symbol of the Palestinian national struggle.
Leila Khaled, a former militant who became famous for her role in the 1969 airline hijacking and a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, part of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was also often photographed with a kuyifa wrapped around her. of her hair and neck in the 1960s and 1970s.
Malhas, who grew up as a second-generation Palestinian in Jordan in the 2000s, told CNN that wearing the black and white kuyifa might be seen as a sign that he was “ungrateful” to Jordan as a host country. The headscarf “was seen as “a symbol of defiance and pan-Arabism” and might be controversial due to its links to Palestinian identity. “My family would feel uncomfortable if I wore it” in Jordan, he said.
He recalled being bullied during high school for wearing one. An older boy told him, “If you don’t like it here, get on a boat and leave.”
In recent pro-Palestinian protests around the world, organizers have encouraged attendees to wear kufiya to show solidarity with the Palestinian people. CNN previously reported that a protester in France said he was fined 135 euros for wearing a kuyifa following the country banned all pro-Palestinian protests.
But wearing the kufiya can also expose its wearers to anti-Palestinian sentiment or Islamophobia: A lawyer for the students shot in Burlington said he believed the Vermont students were attacked in part because they were wearing kufiyas. And a woman in New York was arrested and charged with a hate crime following she allegedly accused a man wearing a kufiya of supporting Hamas and attacked him in early November. She pleaded not guilty.
Who can wear a kufiya?
In addition to serving as a symbol of national identity and resistance, kufiyas have also found their way into the mainstream fashion world. In an episode of Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw sports a tank top that mimics the design of a kufiya. And both luxury and mainstream retailers have sold kufiya as fashion accessories, divorced from their history.
But stripping the kufiya of its original context can be controversial. In 2021, Louis Vuitton sparked accusations of cultural appropriation when it debuted a $705 “keffieh stole,” according to multiple reports. The social media backlash reportedly forced the luxury brand to remove the item from its website. Louis Vuitton declined to comment to multiple outlets at the time. CNN has reached out once more for comment.
Ghnaim urged kufiya wearers to research the garment before wearing it.
“Over the past 10 years, the fashion world has appropriated the kufiya without cultural attribution to its Palestinian origins,” he said.
“Cultural appropriation leads to cultural erasure, and it is critically important that those who wear this scarf educate themselves regarding its meaning and history. It is not a garment that anyone can wear,” he explained. “It symbolizes Palestinian solidarity, liberation and freedom.”
Malhas, on the other hand, said that while non-Palestinians should be careful regarding wearing the kufiya in the traditional style worn by Bedouins, in general, non-Palestinians wearing the garment can be a “great show of solidarity.”
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