Despite its ancient origins, tatreez remains relevant in modern Palestinian life, serving as a powerful tool for women to document experiences in exile, protect ethnic heritage and resist occupation.
Tatreez is a 3,000-year-old form of cross-stitch embroidery passed down through generations of Palestinian women. This rich folk art is recognized worldwide for its intricate geometric designs and colorful threads. Women traditionally decorated their thobes, or dresses, with colors and patterns that symbolized social status, regional differences and stages of womanhood.
But following the mass upheaval of Palestinian society in 1948, tatreez was no longer confined to everyday village life and became politically and economically significant to women.
The Nakba, or the Catastrophe, when Zionist militias displaced over 700,000 Palestinians from historic Palestine in 1948, profoundly altered Palestinian society and, with it, the practice of tatreez.