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US sales to rescue of Palestine's kufiyeh
By Sakhr Al-Makhadhi
LONDON - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, for years a regular presence on
global and regional television, invariably wearing a black and white checkered
scarf known as a kufiyeh, or keffiyah, helped turn the headgear
into a symbol of Palestine. That meant good business for Yasser Hirbawi and his
factory in Hebron, in the Occupied West Bank, which with others churned out the
scarf to meet strong demand.
Now, almost five years after Arafat's death in November 2004, falling demand
for the Arafat-style scarf and competition from cheaper and more colorful
imports have pushed Hirbawi's factory, the last one making kufiyehs in
the West Bank, to the brink of closure. Hirbawi, however, may be rescued by
sales in, of all places, the United States.
Hirbawi, 78, has known no other work. His factory has been making kufiyehs
for decades. But the business is struggling under the impact of Israeli control
of trade between the West Bank and Palestinians in Gaza, and Chinese imports,
whose cheap prices are particularly attractive to Palestinians, given their
increasingly dire economic circumstances.
A World Bank report last year stated that in the Palestinian territories, with
a growing population and a shrinking economy, real per capita gross domestic
product "is now 30% below its height in 1999", with 70-79% unemployment.
Official poverty rates had soared to 79.4% from 51.8% in Gaza and to 45.7% from
19.1% in the West Bank, the report said.
In the United States, the kufiyeh has become a popular accessory,
despite the political history enfolded in it. That should have pleased Mai
Bader, a US-Palestinian activist turned businesswoman, when she saw the scarf
being worn there, but not for long.
"It was kind of nice at first, but then when you see that it was different
colors, and when you see people are just wearing it because it looks cool, that
made me concerned because that is slowly erasing its identity," she said.
"That's what worries Mr Hirbawi, because he feels the identity of Palestine is
being erased."
Mai Bader, with a partner, Haithem el-Zabri, set up the Kufiyeh Project to take
advantage of this new American enthusiasm for the scarf while trying to save
the last Palestinian maker of the product. Based in New Orleans, they are
buying Hirbawi's scarves in bulk and selling the Yasser Arafat favorite across
the US. [1]
Hirbawi says that without that trans-Atlantic trade, his factory might have
already shut its doors. "We are thankful, blessed, and thanks to God that our
business, and our symbol - the kufiyeh - is alive."
The Kufiyeh Project is trying to attract celebrities to the scarf, turning them
into ambassadors for this symbol of Palestinian nationalism. Even though they
may not understand the Palestinian connection, footballer David Beckham and
actor Colin Farrell have been spotted in kufiyehs.
Bader believes the sales push is already having an effect: "People are starting
to realize what it really means ... I got a reaction of people telling me, 'Wow
I didn't know it had that history, I didn't know it originated from there'."
The black and white scarf was common headgear for working men in
British-mandate Palestine before World War II. In 1936, when the peasants
started their rebellion against the colonial power, urban civilians also
started to wear the scarf, supposedly to make it harder for the British to
identify the militants.
In the 1960s, Arafat turned the kufiyeh into a symbol of the Palestinian
resistance against the Israeli occupation and was rarely pictured without it.
With such radical associations, it has not been an easy road for the kufiyeh
in the US.
When American clothing chain Urban Outfitters started selling them, it was
accused of sympathizing with terrorism. The company quickly pulled its kufiyehs
from the shelves, early in 2007, and apologized.
Sarah Colborne from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign says such symbols of
resistance have been under attack for decades.
"There have always been attempts to try to prevent people from showing
solidarity with Palestinians, from pro-Israeli forces worldwide. During the
first intifada [uprising from 1987 to 1991], Palestinians themselves were
denied the right to wear clothes that showed the Palestinian flag's colors."
Colborne believes that the Urban Outfitters controversy may have done the kufiyeh
a favor. "People who hadn't realized the symbolism of the scarf when they
bought it would be more likely to realize it because of the amount of fuss that
had been made."
In Israel, companies are turning a symbol of resistance against their
occupation into a money-making venture. Factories there produce a blue Star of
David kufiyeh. Palestinian film-maker Dalia Al-Kury, who has studied the
spread of the scarf, is not surprised:
"It makes sense that Israelis could be manufacturing their own version ...
Ironically, in a way this symbolizes how the conflict in Israel-Palestine is a
money-making business, before politics and religion."
In the Occupied West Bank, though, there is not much money to be made. Mai
Bader has just visited Yasser Hirbawi in his Hebron factory. She says the
family was moved to know there are people across the world supporting their
struggling business.
So far there have been three shipments of scarves to the US, and the Kufiyeh
Project sold 1,000 pieces in its first quarter - the project was launched in
mid-April this year. That may sound impressive for a family-run factory,
but that is the number of scarves Hirbawi used to produce in a single day.
One of the main reasons for the cut in output is that Hirbawi's scarves
struggle to compete with their Chinese mass-produced rivals. While a production
line in Asia can churn out many kufiyehs every minute for a couple of
dollars, Hirbawi takes half an hour to put one together. In Palestine, they
sell for US$5, rising to between $15 and $25 in the US.
Despite the higher prices, the Kufiyeh Project is also getting orders from
abroad, and is shipping Hirbawi's Palestinian scarves from New Orleans back to
customers across the Arab world. Some had even offered to partner with Bader,
she said.
The Kufiyeh Project targets sales of up to 10,000 by the end of the first year,
and Hirbawi says production in Hebron is already being stepped up. "At the
beginning of the year, we had just four machines functioning out of 15. Today,
thank God, we have 10 machines running properly. And, within two weeks from
now, God willing, we will have five more running."
Bader is confident that despite the recession, the Israeli siege, fashion fads
and cheap imports, global backing can make a difference.
"We just want to continue to support the kufiyeh and we want to keep
[Hirbawi] in business forever and keep producing the Palestinian symbol because
we're not going to let it go, we're not going to let it fade away. We're going
to keep it alive".
Note
1. The website of the The Kufiyeh Project states that the project "was
conceived by concerned activists from New Orleans Palestine Solidarity and the
Austin Coalition for Palestine, in coordination with Palestine Online Store.
The project is not-for-profit, and its objectives are:
To proactively promote the kufiyeh as a symbol of Palestinian identity,
resistance, struggle for justice and solidarity with it.
To support Palestinian industry and make sure that kufiyehs continue to
be produced in Palestine." An image on the site
clearly states: "Resist, boycott. We are intifada."
Sakhr Al-Makhadhi is a London-based British-Arab freelance journalist.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
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