Since October 7 there has been a steady stream of reports about the kufiya: their growing use and visibility, and, in response, efforts to squelch or silence or even arrest people for wearing them. I'm too overwhelmed to keep a full accounting, but occasionally I will try to post about the phenomenon. Here's one incident. Layla is a grad student in Social Work at Columbia, very active on Twitter/X and elsewhere.
Sunday, June 09, 2024
kufiyas post-October 7
Friday, April 05, 2024
Palestinian health institutions under attack: 1978, Lebanon.
Interesting film, "Palestine Red Crescent Society" (1979, dir. Monica Maurer and Samir Nimer). Filmed in 1978 in Lebanon, it examines the development and the work of the PRCS. Its work encompasses not just pre-natal health and "normal" medical functions, but also the treatment of the wounded and the rehabilitation clinics that handle those mutilated or left handicap by periodic Israeli attacks and the Lebanese Civil War. Attacks on Palestinian health infrastructure did not start in Gaza in 2023....
Monday, March 18, 2024
#kufiyaspotting again
Monday, February 12, 2024
Americans in Lebanon march for Palestinian right of return, April 1973
Monday, February 05, 2024
#kufiyaspotting: Esperanza Spalding at the Grammys (+ watermelons: Aja Monet + artists4ceasefire: boygenius and Annie Lennox)
At the Grammys last night, jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding (double nominee)
showed her support for the Palestinians by donning a kufiya.
Also: poet Aja Monet, up for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, carried a watermelon clutch.
and...boygenius wore arists4ceasefire pins.
And finally, Annie Lennox gave a shoutout for #ceasefire
Sunday, December 31, 2023
#kufiyaspotting: John Lennon, Bermuda, 1980
October 7 and its aftermath have produced multiple kufiya spottings, and a fair bit of news coverage. I've been too overwhelmed by the events to get on the blog to write about it. I will try to make more of an effort in future, but all I can promise is dribs and drabs. This represents some housekeeping, in fact, a photo that has been on my hard drive for some time but never managed to post.
John Lennon spent some time in Bermuda in 1980. A friend sent me this photo, found on reddit. The description says only this: "new release photo, on deck, Bermuda June 1980." Do we presume then that John was on some yacht, and needed to cover himself from the sun, or protect himself from the wind. And why did he use a kufiya? Kufiyas were starting to become somewhat common street wear in US urban areas by the early eighties, as I've written about elsewhere, so I guess it was simply something he came across in New York City, where he lived. That's all I've got! Check out the photo:
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
My book chapter, "The Kufiya" (2021) available here as a pdf
My book chapter, "The Kufiya," published in Asef Bayat and Linda Herrera, Global Middle East: Into the Twenty-First Century, University of California Press, 2021, is now available here, as a pdf.
Note that there is even a kufiya on the cover of the book! (On the shoulders of Edward Said, from a mural.)
Note too that if you search this blog there is lots of kufiya/kaffiyeh/keffiyeh content.
My kufiya article from 1992: "Seeing Double: Palestinian/American Histories of the Kufiya"
My 1992 article, “Seeing Double: Palestinian-American Histories of the Kufiya,” published in Michigan Quarterly Review 31(4): 557-577, can now be found here, as a pdf. It also appeared in the Michigan Quarterly Review's 60th anniversary issue--60(1): 341-362 in 2021.