Keffiyeh Shemagh — Palestine City Names Embroidery

Keffiyeh, Shemagh, Kufiya with Palestine City Names Embroidery

The cities are stitched along the cloth in Arabic. Haifa. Yafa. Akka. Al-Quds. Ghazza. Nablus. Al-Khalil.

Some of them still appear on maps under those names. Some don't. That's the reason to put them on a scarf.

Erasure works by renaming first. A place becomes something else on paper, then in the atlas, then in the way people talk about it, and a generation later you have to explain that it was ever called anything different. Writing the old names down is small. It's also the whole fight in miniature.

Someone will read them over your shoulder on a train. That's the point.

How it's made

Made in Jordan, on looms that have been turning out this cloth for generations. City names embroidered after weaving.

• 60% cotton / 40% high-quality synthetic
• All-season weight — sun protection in summer, warmth in winter
• Wear it as a headscarf, a neck wrap, or over the shoulders

Handwoven notes

• Finished by hand. Loose threads happen — trim them carefully. Trims vary.
• Allow about an inch of variation in dimension. Colours may read slightly differently depending on your screen.

راجعين — we shall return.