Ramallah -

"Yama, at your request, adhere to all the components of the homeland, including the dress, put on your clothes and interact with the campaign My Historical Dress and My Identity on Palestinian TV through your platforms and pages on social media." With these simple words, the Jordanian artist Juliette Awad participated in the campaign #MyHistoric_ Dress.

Awad's participation was part of a wide participation of influencers and artists on social networking sites who interacted with this campaign by publishing their photos and videos of them, wearing Palestinian dresses from various regions of historical Palestine and the world.

And "Palestine" TV - a channel and a group of artistic digital platforms that set the definition of Palestine and its heritage as a goal - was launched in response to Israel's attempt to steal the Palestinian dress by attributing it to it, as the campaign coordinator Sumaya Suqi tells Al Jazeera Net;

The last of these attempts, when the participants in the beauty pageant that was held in Israel last December, appeared wearing the Palestinian dress while preparing traditional Palestinian dishes, while claiming that this dress is part of the heritage of the occupation.


And this campaign - according to Souqi - is directed at Palestinian and Arab women in general, to wear Palestinian dresses and share them on social media with the hashtag #MyThobe_Historical and #Our_heritage_not_stealing.

The campaign organizers cooperated with a group of women in the Gaza Strip who embroidered a set of dresses specifically for the campaign, to distribute them to a group of influencers to wear during the 10-day campaign, and publish their photos with their publications.

It was left to these influencers - including artists, singers and media professionals - the choice of how to participate, whether with a song, artwork or publications.

Souki indicated that the campaign received an unprecedented interaction that exceeded their expectations, despite the lack of participation of all the influencers targeted by the campaign so far, stressing that the work on introducing the Palestinian dress will not end with the end of the campaign.

According to Souqi, this campaign is a continuous episode with goals, on the one hand, in which it reconfirms the value of the traditional Palestinian dress, confronts the attempt to steal from Israel, and introduces it through the content that is published, in order to benefit 300 women from the Gaza Strip from this campaign by marketing the dresses they embroidered and introducing their work. .

In support, the campaign had partnerships with the official Palestine TV and the Jordanian "Roya" satellite channel, in addition to Palestinian universities, including An-Najah National University and the American University, by holding seminars and encouraging its students to wear their traditional dresses, take pictures and publish them on social media.

Maha Al-Sakka, researcher at the Palestinian Heritage Center: What distinguishes embroidery on Palestinian dresses is that it documented the reality of Palestine (communication sites)

Not just an embroidered dress.. but an identity

The traditional Palestinian dress is characterized by embroidery associated with each geographical region in historical Palestine, and its drawings were a reflection of the region’s environment and social reality, which the Palestinians tried to confirm by including the art of Palestinian embroidery in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization “UNESCO” in the lists of world cultural heritage. December First 2021.

Maha Al-Sakka, a researcher at the Palestinian Heritage Center who accompanied the registration process, said that Palestine prepared a file of 700 pages and submitted it to UNESCO, with which it was able to persuade 194 countries to vote in its favour.

The file included documents proving the existence of embroidery from the Canaanite era and its connection to all Palestinian cities and towns.

Lana Hijazi, the founder of the Palestinian Costume Day initiative: The Palestinian dress carries a national value (Al-Jazeera)

Al-Saqa continued - to Al-Jazeera Net - that embroidery is present in all parts of the world, but what distinguished the embroidery on Palestinian dresses is that it documented the reality of Palestine, and served as documents on their presence in every Palestinian village, "The Palestinian woman trusted her environment, beliefs, identity and social life on her dress."

She explains that Jaffa was famous for its orange groves and cypress trees;

Its women embroidered the orange flower and surrounded it with cypress, and the dress of Jericho - the oldest city in the world - was embroidered with Canaanite motifs that were found engraved thousands of years ago in its caves, while the dress of Ramallah was distinguished by roses and embroidered flowers in red.

These dresses presented a social reality. Beersheba's dress - embroidered in red - was replaced by the widow with blue embroidery during her mourning period for her husband, so he became known as the widow's dress.

But if she wants to marry again, she will have colorful decorations and toys embroidered on it, as a sign of her desire to have children.

The Palestinian dress also reflected the political reality, especially during the first intifada, when women replaced the decorations of nature with the Palestinian flag, which Israel was forbidden to raise at the time, with the map of Palestine, the Dome of the Rock, and the shape of the church.

Lana Hijazi in one of the activities of the Palestinian Costume Day (Al-Jazeera)

integrated efforts

Al-Saqa believes that the registration of Palestinian embroidery is a long beginning to preserve the Palestinian dress and its national value, and that these campaigns must not stop, which is agreed upon by a member of the administrative board of the Palestinian Costume Association Lana Hijazi.

Hijazi, who is interested in collecting Palestinian dresses, started a campaign in 2015 to preserve and re-wear the Palestinian dress on a daily basis, when she launched a day to wear the Palestinian dress under the slogan "Wear your dress, who is your dress", which became traditional in July of each year.

She tells Al Jazeera Net, "a very important Palestinian TV campaign, as it is part of efforts to preserve the heritage dress, and it reminds us of the importance of preserving the Palestinian identity."

From the Palestinian Costume Day initiative (Al Jazeera)

Selected links

Hijazi believes that these campaigns complement the local campaigns that are usually directed to the Palestinians, as they address a new audience, which expands the circle of interaction, and the definition of this heritage.

Here are several links to female personalities who interacted with the #MyHistoricalThobe campaign:

Ramya Al-Ibrahim, presenter at Al-Mayadeen TV.

# My dress_historic 💛


Within the systematic theft of our Palestinian heritage, the Israeli occupation presents the Palestinian top as a biblical costume in the Miss Universe 2021 contest # Expose them # I_my_my_Palestinian_...God ✌ pic.twitter.com/8loHbecAvP

— ramia al ibrahim - ramia al ibrahim (@ramiaalibrahim) February 20, 2022

Media colleague Ghada Owais, Al-Jazeera anchor, while receiving a Palestinian dress from the campaigners #MyHistorical_Thought.

#MyHistoricalThobe#OurHistoricalThobe#MyHistoricalThobe @FalastiniTV pic.twitter.com/jjbSx7D6Eq

— Ghada Oueiss Ghada Oueiss (@ghadaoueiss) February 20, 2022

Palestinian journalist Majdoleen Hassouna participates in the #MyHistorical Dress campaign.

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A post shared by Majdoleen Hassona (@majdoleenhassona)

Recording by artist Juliet Awad, published by Palestine TV.

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A post shared by Falastini TV Palestinian TV (@falastinitv)