Fashion-conscious radicals can rejoice. The Palestinian Koufeyyeh (not the watered down Kafeyeh, or Keffiyeh, or Kefaya) is back! It has miraculously regained its radical chicness just at the very moment we all thought it was lost to corporate appropriation. Our hearts sank and we held our breath and each other's hand, fearing that Palestine was a lost cause when Urban Outfitters started selling OUR koufeyyeh, in multiple colors, as a chic anti-war accessory for $ 20.
It almost killed us that it was a best-selling item!
But, now we can all take a deep breath. The accessorising of the Palestinian cause is over! And for that we have to thank some anti-Palestinian groups who vehemently protested the sale of the item and successfully forced Urban Outfitters to apologize and discontinue it.
So let's celebrate this GREAT victory (although not of our making but since when does this deter us)! The koufeyyeh, thanks to our enemies, is radical chic again!
(A nerdy aside: the best thing written about the history of the Koufeyyeh is the chapter in Ted Swedengburg's excellent book Memories of Revolt:1936-1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past).
Palestine
2 comments:
marhaba amal a - just a quick note to say i've been following your blog off and on for a while now and admire it - it's nice to encounter a familiar sort of progressive palestinian voice - i'm half palestinian on my mom's side and grew up in beirut - anyway your post on the kefiyyeh (sorry, no way out of the accent - i also noted with amused disapproval your remarks on lebanese, criminality, onions, and mjaddara) for some reason was the one that made me want to drop you a line - as it happened i wore mine today to a class i teach, feeling a bit radical chic myself after the urban outfitters flap.
anyway keep it up - i gather you're an academic - where are you? i'm
http://ccp.uchicago.edu/~regier/
terry regier
Marhaba Terry,
It's always nice to see the faces behind the IPS addresses. So you wore your koufeyeh? Proves my point, right? Now, it's back to radical chicness status. Better go find mine. It's been neglected of late.
Why the disaproval? I don't know how you make your mjaddara, but mine is really good. I have dinner parties with mjaddara as the main dish. My mother used to be scandalized and accuse me of cheating my American guests who have no clue that they are eating a lowly peasant dish.
Yes, I'm an academic. Is that bad? : )
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