Threads of Identity: Preserving Palestinian Costume and Heritage by Widad Kawar

Threads of Identity: Preserving Palestinian Costume and Heritage

Preserving Palestinian Costume and Heritage

Widad Kamel Kawar

 This book is a record of the 50 years Widad Kamel Kawar spent researching, collecting and preserving part of the heritage of Palestine. This endeavour evolved into the Widad Kawar Collection, the largest to date of Palestinian traditional dress and accessories, comprising more than 3,000 items.

 In the following chapters Kawar presents the story of how the collection evolved and she introduces the life stories of the women who produced the beautiful costumes it contains. For her, each item calls to mind an individual or a place: a wife, a mother, a daughter, a family, a house, a village, a town, a field, a market. Each item was worn on special occasions, happy and sad, that marked the owner’s life. Much of Widad Kawar’s knowledge stems from the personal narratives of these women whose embroidery and dress-making skills she so admires.

 Threads of Identity is a history of Palestinian women told through aspects of popular heritage, focusing on traditional dresses but also including textiles and rug weaving, rural and urban customs, jewellery, cuisine, and festivities. The interviews with women who lived through the traumas and changes of the 20^th century are a contribution to oral history, augmenting standard historical accounts. While most writing about the Middle East concentrates on politics, her book focuses on the dignity of ordinary people, and women in particular, bridging the gap between the major events of history and everyday life. With this book Widad Kamel Kawar pays homage to Palestinian women.

About the Author:

Widad Kamel Kawar has collected folkart for the last 50 years beginning with articles from Palestine and then also from Jordan. She has amassed an extensive collection to preserve a culture that has been dispersed by wars and conflict.

Because of her great interest in the subject and her love of her own Palestinian culture, she has unstintingly given access to herself and her own unequaled collection of Palestinian and Jordanian costumes to anyone and everyone doing research in this field. Without her knowledge, enthusiasm, and willingness to share, much of what is now known would be lost to mankind. 

It is a continuation of this desire to encourage research that she has set up a resource center to encourage scholars, students, and any others with an interest in this heritage to come and study with access to her fine library, data base of her collection, articles, photo archive, in addition to the costumes and accessories themselves.

Language: English
ISBN: 9789963610419
2011, paperback, 464 pages, 11.0” x 8.5” (22 cm x 28cm)