In the 1930s the keffiyeh was worn mostly by farmers and lower-class people from the villages, who used it as a headdress to protect themselves from the harsh weather conditions. This was seen as a symbol of social inferiority and backwardness by the upper class and townspeople, who wore a Tarbuush (طربوش; often called a “fez” in English from the Turkish fes): a rigid, red, conical hat. But during the Arab revolts against British forces, rebels started wearing the keffiyeh to conceal their identity and urged upper-class and townspeople to start wearing it too, so that the rebels could blend in when entering other cities. The British tried banning them, but this only encouraged Palestinians from all social backgrounds to start wearing the keffiyeh collectively as a form of resistance.

The patterns on the keffiyeh have many different meanings and interpretations: the fishnet pattern can represent the Palestinians’ connection to the sea, while the bold lines may represent the trade routes which made Palestine an exchange hub in ancient history. (Others believe the lines represent the walls that surround the land.) The oval stitches along the borders represent olive tree leaves: olive trees are of great cultural significance to Palestinians. They play a vital role in the Palestinian economy through oil and wood production, but the olive tree is also a representation of Palestinians’ resilience and attachment to their land. It’s important to note that the keffiyeh doesn’t have a religious meaning and that people wear it regardless of their religious beliefs, social backgrounds, age or gender.

Just like the keffiyeh, tatreez has humble origins. Village women used to gather to decorate clothes, scarves and other textiles and pass down this art form to the younger generation. In general, geometric forms and subjects from nature are the most common motifs, but most of them reflect ordinary items from rural women’s daily lives, such as food (apples and chick-peas), animals (cow’s eyes and scorpions) and implements (mill wheels and ladders). Other motifs symbolized basic elements in nature like the sun, moon, stars, trees, mountains and water.

The colors used in the embroidery were just as important as the design, and color schemes were chosen in reflection of a woman’s feelings and stage in life. For example, in the Hebron region, purple threads were preferred by older women, while girls opted for red and green. In some Bedouin tribes, blue embroidery was meant for unmarried women, while married women used red to represent their status as wives. Older women or widows who were interested in remarrying combined the color blue with red flowers and sometimes intertwined figures of children with blue embroidery on the back panel of their dresses. However, red also symbolized happiness and life more generally and so could be used in almost all Palestinian embroidery, alongside other bright colors for accentuation. The dyes came either from Greater Syria or, later on, from Europe.

Following the forced mass displacement of Palestinians into refugee camps post-1948, regional differences disappeared altogether. From the 1950s onward, practicality became essential in clothing, which featured plain decorations, but Palestinian women realized that they could make an income through their embroidery work. In the aftermath of the 1967 war and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, display of the Palestinian flag was forbidden, but that didn’t stop women from stitching red, green, white and black designs into their embroidery. The words انتفاضة (intifada, “uprising”) and فلسطين (“Palestine”) were skillfully integrated into cushion patterns, serving as symbols of passive resistance and expressing Palestinian nationalist pride.