If you live in Montreal, Toronto, or any other fashionable city in the Western world, chances are you’ve seen young, terminally hip, and non-Arab people slouching around wearing these:
(thanks to The Village Voice for the picture)
Apparently this is a trend that has been raging in European cities for so long that it’s now passe, but it seems to have only caught on in Toronto over the past few months.
These elusive scarves are not, unfortunately, just a whacky new invention, like jeans that are so tight they burst your appendix. They’re called keffiyehs, or shemagh scarves, and while they originate in the Arab world, in recent years they have come to represent identification with the Palestinian side of the long and bloody conflict between Palestine and Israel over territory. The different colours (i.e. red, black) show affiliation with different political parties (i.e. Fatah, the PLO). For example, here is Yasser Arafat of the PLO wearing one:
Well, that’s all well and good, but how did keffiyehs go from meaning “Intifada!” (i.e. “I’m for Palestine!”) to “I’m extremely fashionable and I’m probably going to a really cool party on Saturday night?”
I can’t tell you that. Even I, with all my knowledge into the dark world of pop culture, have no idea how the keffiyeh became, ahem, to put it in hipster terms, “the sickest s*** ever.” Whatever the case, hipsters aren’t wearing the scarf because they’re really into Palestine. Vice Magazine suggests keffiyehs are hip because they’re the ultimate in anti-establishment irony (I’m paraphrasing), but I disagree.
Not only are keffiyeh-wearing hipsters not pro-Palestine, it seems to me that many scarf wearers don’t know what the keffiyeh means, which is maybe the most disturbing thing about their sudden popularity. There’s a total lack of awareness that, when a person treats the keffiyeh solely as a great accessory, not only is it demeaning and disrespectful to decades of extremely painful history for the Palestinians, it’s also very upsetting for a lot of pro-Israel Jews, who view the scarves as anti-Semitic. Just like bindis, dreads, and geisha Halloween costumes, the keffiyeh is a particularly gruesome form of cultural appropriation.
I guess the commodification of profound political symbols has been trendy for a while now. Who here hasn’t owned a Che Guevara t-shirt before they had any idea who Che was, or hasn’t at some point or other had a hammer and sickle pin somewhere on them?
But maybe the reason why the keffiyeh as high fashion is so jolting is because, unlike Che and the USSR, the conflict in Israel-Palestine is very much current, and also very poorly understood, especially in North America. To wear a symbol that is so central to the conflict and have no idea of its extremely heavy meaning seems really unfashionable - well, to me at least.
P.S. If you’d like to know more about the conflict, Joe Sacco’s Palestine is an amazing account of the Palestinian side (and also happens to be a graphic novel, whodathunk?). I don’t know of any good books that talk about the Israeli side - can anyone suggest?
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20 comments
I live in Dublin right now, and it's the first place I saw the keffiyeh (thank you Thea, I had no idea what it was called) worn about town. Here it is a fashionable accessory, but it is also a political comment. A good friend of mine has one and gets a lot of people stopping her on the street to talk politics. In that way, I think its this new trend is good because it's an easy way to open up a dialogue about current events and the Palestinian-Israel war.
As for it being a symbol of anti-Semitism, I think there is a big difference between being opposed politically to Israel as a state and hating Jews, and am worried about how the term "anti-Semitism" is overused in my opinion. For my part, I think Israel has atrocities against the Palestinian people (as have the Palestinian Authority for that matter, against their own people and Israel) and I'm sick of having to let everyone know that just because I'm against the Wall, Security Fence, whatever, it doesn't mean I hate Jewish people.
As for me, I still haven't gone out and bought a keffiyeh yet- it wouldn't match my coat. Kidding!
Posted by kasia
January 11, 2007, 2:19 PM
A Palestinian friend of mine optimistically said that even if people aren't wearing keffiyehs in support of Palestine, it's nice to see them around. I'd totally agree with that, except it annoys me like mad to see it flashed around as an accessory.
I don't think that being pro-Palestine is anti-Semitic either, and it didn't even occur to me that the keffiyeh craze would bother Israel supporters - until I googled keffiyeh + hipster while I was doing research for this post, and found countless blogs lamenting the rise of anti-Semitism via all the hot young things wearing keffiyehs. Like I said, I think that gives the hot young things a bit too much credit. I really don't think the keffiyeh's ascendency in fashion has much to do with anything except aesthetics.
Posted by Thea
January 11, 2007, 3:54 PM
In response to Thea's request for good books on the Israeli side - I sometimes wonder if thinking about the conflict in terms of clear-cut "sides" isn't part of the problem here in the west. It's very easy to find writing that takes a strong rhetorical position - Palestinians crushed by land-hungry Israelis; Israelis terrorized by bomb-wielding Palestinians. (Not that I'm suggesting that's what Sacco's book is like - from the excerpts I've read, it seems to be trying to get at the actual lived experience of Palestinian and Arab people under occupation, rather than waving a big ol' rhetorical flag.) But what about the grey areas of the conflict that don't look so sexy on a button or sign? Like the Israelis who protested the bombing of Lebanon, or Palestinians who protest the corruption of their own goverment, or the many alliances formed between the various groups in the interest of (sigh) peace. These are the kinds of stories I need to hear (and almost never do), not polemical let-me-show-you-how-right-I-am tracts that may paint things as checkered (ahem) but always in black and white.
Posted by Anna
January 12, 2007, 5:19 PM
Actually, as a counterpoint to my post above, I just heard about a graphic novel by an Israeli woman named Rutu Modan called Exit Wounds that sounds kind of interesting. I haven't read it, but if anyone has and wants to comment on it, I'd love to hear.
Posted by Anna
January 19, 2007, 11:57 PM
That sounds great. Maybe someone can review it for Shameless...
You're right about trying to find ways to think about the conflict that isn't so one side or the other. I didn't mean to suggest that you're either for one side or against the other either, I was just talking more about resources that understand the conflict from the Palestinian point of view, or the Israeli point of view.
Last year I read a pretty old book by John Le Carre called the Little Drummer Girl that is actually a more complex description of the conflict, and is quite good at talking about both sides. It's a good book but I think that if I was more personally invested in Palestine and Israel (i.e. if I had family or religious interests) I probably would've disliked it for not taking a more forceful stand.
Posted by Thea
January 20, 2007, 2:01 PM
[...] Here’s a strange follow-up to my blog about the Arab/Palestinian keffiyeh’s transition to high fashion: up until recently the American hipster clothing store Urban Outfitters had keffiyehs for sale - only they called them “anti-war scarves,” bizarrely enough. But if you go to the Urban Outfitters webpage and do a search for “anti-war scarf” today, (click here to see for yourself) you’ll find this instead: [...]
Posted by Shameless Magazine - for girls who get it » updat
January 20, 2007, 6:17 PM
If they're worn all across the Mid-East and not just Palestine, how are they such a symbol of conflict? Is this a question of people that pay close attention to the conflict but aren't exactly in the mid east getting stirred up about it? Could it be that since they don't really have much contact with the culture of the mid-east that they're blowing it out of proportion?
People have worn shemagh's waaaay before Arafat and other political figures, mainly in the mid-east but also in other areas of the world. I have one and actually got it from a US military surplus store.
Urban outfitters is retarded. The whole debate on this seems to be from people on the outside looking in, trying to comment on something that they don't have a direct perspective on. They're view may be diluted since they're not actually from Palestine or anywhere else in the mid-east.
Posted by CAM'RON
February 1, 2007, 9:32 PM
Hey Cam'ron, I wasn't trying to insinuate that shemaghs have no other meaning than a Palestinian one. From the very light research I did on them, it was clear that they've been worn for eons - and I also came across lots of online military surplus stores that carried them. I imagine American soldiers in the middle east started wearing them because they were easily available and the best thing for desert combat, and they worked their way into army surplus from there.
I do think though, that the hipster fad of wearing them is directly connected to their significance in Palestine. If you click around the internet a bit, you'll find more than one article on terrorist chic (kinda a horrible term) and how the fad started because a young, urbanised generation who emphasise aesthetics above all else were into them for the shock value.
I appreciate your comments about how people who are on the outside blow things out of proportion, but the issue that I'm talking about is not an issue in the middle-east. I'm talking about cultural appropriation in my own city, carried out in a way that is very typical to my (adopted) culture.
As well, whether or not they've been worn for a long time, it's cultural appropriation. In fact, the older their history, the more annoying the cultural appropriation. I'm Chinese and when I see Western people who don't really understand or care about my culture wearing mock cheongsams, it irks me. I figure if cheongsams had some particular political significance - especially if it was directly tied to the way that European and American forces dominate the globe - it would irk me to the max.
Posted by Thea
February 14, 2007, 3:50 PM
I am Palestinian, and I actually have a relative thats a fashion designer that uses the keffiyah/hatta in her designs. She has ties, shirts, tops ect. Its really becoming a large fashion statement world wide...
Posted by rana
February 20, 2007, 2:56 PM
I dont get it, after asking loadsa arabs friends and other people, is it ok for non-arabs to be wearing the scarf? i support the mid east - and am 4 palestine...?
Posted by Question?
March 18, 2007, 2:53 PM
My issue is more with people in the West wearing them solely for fashion. So it would bug me if you wear prancing about town wearing one because it matched your coat, but it wouldn't bug me if you were wearing one in solidarity.
Though of course it shouldn't come down to what I like or don't like! I think it's up to everybody to think long and hard about things like cultural appropriation, and make their own choices. Talking to people who are actually from the particular cultural group that the clothes/tradtion/language etc etc comes from is probably a good start.
Posted by thea
March 20, 2007, 2:28 PM
[...] of scarves, Several students here are still wearing keffiyahs as an accessory. Which reminds me of ye olde tubao, Che Guevarra shirts, Buddha beads etc. An interesting article [...]
Posted by Faaaaashyown at
March 28, 2007, 4:22 AM
I'm a Palestinian American living in Palestine. I love the keffiyeh/hatta, especially wearing it in America. It gives me a true sense of who I am. I am slightly annoyed by the people who take such a wonderful part of Palestinian heritage and use is as a fashion statment rather than a political statement. But I think (hope) that most people understand the message, at least they're raising awarness to others, even if they dont realize it.
Posted by Tamara
July 19, 2007, 9:42 PM
I live in the UK and I have recently started to make a point of asking people wearing the keffiyeh whether they support Hamas or Fatah, or how long they have supported the Intifada. So far, 100 percent of the time I have received a blank look in return.
When you have Topshop selling these scarves (not as some sort of fund raising or awareness raising exercise, just because they are trendy) and they are worn by 14-year-olds with short skirts and too much make-up, it becomes pretty obvious that this is just a vacuous trend, rather than a political statement of any kind.
It goes to show how poorly young people are served by their media and education systems that they don't know the historical or political significance of these fashion items. I imagine the situation is the same in the US.
Posted by dk
July 26, 2007, 10:40 AM
How come no one gets annoyed when they see men holding guns and wearing crosses? How come no one raises awarenes about farmes when they see gangbangers, and skateborders running around with bandanas? How come its ok to wear army fatigue clothing and not harrass people about past and present ( and possibly future wars?!?!) Fashion is fashion, whether or not you like ssomething at least one person will wear it whether it is because of circumstance, or because they think it looks great with their favorite t- shirt... not to offend anyone, but if your annoyed, suck it up because in the west its just another fad and complaining aout it on blogs is not going to do much but probably extend the fad just to annoy people.
Posted by izzy
August 7, 2007, 9:39 AM
That's interesting that you should mention army fatigues - in our last issue of Shameless, Nicole has a great article deconstructing the trendiness of the army print!
Yup, fashion is fashion. However, this fashion statement is particularly politically charged - whereas farmers and bandanas have no political significance as far as I know - and I think that it deserves attention because of that. We should be able to critique the culture around us!
Posted by Thea
August 7, 2007, 11:22 AM
Just for the record: I do get annoyed when I see men holding guns and wearing crosses (well, crosses are a grey area... if it has lots of rhinestones and is being worn by Flava Flav I feel pretty good about it). I even once (probably unfairly) heckled a band for showing images of men holding guns while they played. But now I just blog about it.
Posted by Anna
August 7, 2007, 11:06 PM
I grew up in the middle east and although I am not arab, it reminds me of growing up there when I see it. I happened to see it for the first time in the west when I went to Europe on my way back to the US and saw a lot of young people wearing it and I thought it was really interesting to see them being worn outside the middle east. It doesnt mean much to me except that it reminds me of the time I grew up in the middle east. I dont necessarily think it has to do with being Palestinian although they also wear it, I have seen arabs of all kinds and even non arabs in the middle east wearing headscarves with that particular print. Young people are always trying to express their non conformance and what better way than to wear this? Maybe the shemagh shows that they are fighting their own battle within the society they live in.
Posted by MB
August 17, 2007, 3:33 PM
All fashion is a political statement. That's why I find this debate so difficult. Certain things are clearly so religiously or culturally or politically important that wearing them is a bad idea or amounts to trivializing important issues. But I live in a multicultural city and I love the idea that this can stretch the way I understand and relate to beauty. I agree that there are limits, but experimenting outside the expected keeps the visual discourse of fashion current and fresh. Also, while I don't support the Iraq war and would be careful making military statements, I own two military jackets. One belonged to my mother in the 60s. I wear it as part of her story. The other was bought because it's more lightweight than almost all other jackets and has pockets (something current fashion has forgotten women need). I would never wear fategues. That's far too militant. But face it. Some of this clothing is just practical and known for it's quality. I have no room for guilt about something by now rather ambiguous in meaning that I feel good in. Remember the hockey sweater. "It's not what you put on your back that matters, it's what you put inside your head." I feel there are limits to what we can conciencably wear, but paranoia about what values visually look like makes us all feel guilty sooner or later.
Posted by Myra
December 26, 2007, 1:21 PM
I'm not too up to par with Palestinian affairs (though thanks to my recent exposure, thanks to y'all, I'll end up looking more into it), but I have a keffiyeh and wear it often for hiking ventures as protection from the weather. It also keeps my face and ears relatively warm outside in the winter. Would I be offending people for using the keffiyeh for such practical use?
Posted by Tahira
February 14, 2008, 10:47 PM
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