Keffiyeh Shemagh — Palestine City Names Embroidery on Flag Color Base

Keffiyeh, Shemagh, Kufiya — Palestine City Names Embroidery on a Flag Color Base

Two layers of the same argument.

The base is the flag-colour weave — red, green, black running through the fishnet and the olive leaf instead of the usual black on white. Along the edge, a band of Arabic: the city names, stitched in colour against black.

Haifa. Yafa. Akka. Al-Quds. Ghazza. Nablus. Al-Khalil.

Erasure works by renaming first. A place becomes something else on paper, then in the atlas, then in how people talk, and a generation later you're explaining it was ever called anything else. Writing the names down is a small act. It's also the whole fight in miniature.

On the plain black-and-white version the band is the only colour on the scarf. Here it sits inside a cloth that's already saying it. Louder, and further away.

How it's made

Made in Jordan, on looms that have been turning out this cloth for generations. Flag-color weave, with the city-name band 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.