new lines magazine: Palestinian Tatreez Offers Grief and Solace

Illustration by Joanna Andreasson for New Lines Magazine

How passing the traditional embroidery art from one generation to another continues to anchor a people with their past.

My “sito” (grandmother) has a small patch of calloused skin on her right index finger. She earned this mark from decades of sewing traditional Palestinian cross-stitching, or tatreez, a geometric embroidery pattern used to document a village’s history. When I was younger, I wanted to master that same skill, so I began to learn the rhythm of this art form: pulling the thread, poking it through the eye of a needle, pushing it in and out of a canvas in a steady wave. It took me months to catch up to the speed of the women in my family, but I got there eventually.

The word tatreez comes from tarza, which means “stitch” in Arabic, making tatreez the act of artful stitching. It is a unique style of Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery composed of rich colors and textures that often correlate with the Palestinian flag’s red, green, black and white colors. Originating some 3,000 years ago in ancient Canaan, once known as the “Land of Purple” for its famous colored dyes, tatreez has survived war and displacement, just like the Palestinians who created it. Now it is being used by activists to commemorate the thousands of people killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 and as a protest against the ongoing war.

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