If you’re twenty-something, a college student, live in an urban city, or any combination of the three, you’ve probably seen keffiyehs adorned by countless young hipsters, activists and fashion-minded folk in the last couple of years.
The keffiyeh began its career as a political statement in Occupied Palestine in the 1930’s, as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism against British occupation. It became popular again in the 1960s when it was adopted by then Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat. Its popularity resurged yet again in 1987 when the first Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation began.
The scarf’s trend has taken off since then. It became popular in Tokyo years ago when young Japanese folk would get them from Army surplus stores. The trend spread westward, and now its hard to find a store catering to the twenty-something market that doesn’t carry some version of the keffiyeh. When I was living in the UK last year, Urban Outfitters was carrying them on its shelves, marketed as an “anti-war” scarf, in a myriad of colors – I even saw a hot pink one with skulls. The store pulled them off the shelves last January after a number of protests. It seems Hollywood is all over this trend too – aside from adorning the necks of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, apparently Sienna Miller is wearing a Louis Vuitton version.
It’s far easier for us in the global North to buy, adopt and dress ourselves with the symbols of revolution rather than engage or involve ourselves with revolutionary acts themselves. Are we changing anything by buying such products, or are corporations merely packaging and selling our desire for social change back to us? Are companies that are selling keffiyehs engaged in cultural appropriation by spinning the artifacts of indigenous cultures and then marketing them for their own mass-profit, without sharing any of those profits with oppressed Palestinian peoples? It sounds pretty unethical to me. It would make more sense to have Palestinian organizations create keffiyehs and sell them to raise money for Palestinian people then have the likes of Louis Vuitton and Urban Outfitters sell them for profit on a mass scale.
I can’t generalize and assume that every person I see wearing a keffiyeh is unaware of the history and meaning behind such a highly-charged, politicized symbol. I hope they aren’t. I know that when I wear mine, bought from a Palestinian rights organization at a protest in London, I wear it as a symbol of solidarity and as a responsibility for me to be as informed as possible as I can about what’s going on in Occupied Palestine. My desire to wear the keffiyeh as a political symbol of solidarity comes from my own family history of colonization. I didn’t just stroll into Urban Outfitters or TopShop and shell out $20-$30 for a sweatshop reproduction made in a developing country to identify with a cause that I know nothing about or an experience that my community has never had.
This prompts me to ask a few questions: are cultures like a big buffet table, where we can just pick and choose what we want without knowledge of the social and political contexts behind them? Where is the fine line between cultural appropriation and individual expression? Is it going to take another land being occupied for hipsters to have their next fashion trend?
image credit: me (taken outside a shop in Brighton, UK)
[Author’s note: All of this has prompted a few local people to start a delightful little guerilla campaign, The $10 Keffiyeh-for-Fashion Tax on Facebook. The group description is as follows: Open to those who would like to enforce a $10 Fine/Tax on people who ignorantly adorn themselves with the Keffiyeh. We are talking about those people who have no idea that the “sexy” scarf they bought from Urban Outfitters is ACTUALLY an important symbol of Palestinian Solidarity. The idea is to print out tickets, and hand them out to people you see wearing the Keffiyeh, and who fail to answer three simple questions that would otherwise show they wear it in solidarity with the People of Palestine: 1. Why did you buy that scarf? 2. Why do you wear that scarf? 3. What significance does it have in your life? If they fail, after a brief history lesson, we will insist that they make a donation of $10 to the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund ].
SIMILAR POSTS:
PREVIOUS POSTS: « STOP Junk Mail | MAIN PAGE | I’m a huge fan, Vonnegut Dollhouse »
Comments
This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Absurdity, Activism, City, Controversy, Criticism, Fashion, Justice, News, Politics, Revolution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Kamal, I so agree with this sentence: “It’s far easier for us in the global North to buy, adopt and dress ourselves with the symbols of revolution rather than engage or involve ourselves with revolutionary acts themselves.” You rule. Jark.
This makes me so angry. I often write off this type of behaviour as innocent ignorance but i think a huge of part of this comes down to a lack of genuine respect for other cultures. Thanks for this, Kamal. DL
Am I a total asshole if I want one??? Now that I know what they represent… I’d still wear it???
I agree to pay the tax and all???
Still an asshole..? but ill pay the tax! Only if you show me how to tie it.
With great respect and a lil fun poking (in good spirits)
RAF
Isn’t it amazing how much meaning art has… even art in the form of textile has so much behind it. This coming from one of Canada’s slightly fashion impaired people.
I wore plaid and ripped jeans far past the grunge era… ah well.
RAFi
Hi RAF…nope I don’t think you’re an asshole if you want a keffiyeh, if you know the politics behind it. It’s strange though - the colour politics around the keffiyeh. When my friends and I wear it, being people of colour, we get thought of as a threat. For example, one of my best friends wore it on the bus to have a white man stare at her in horror and fear until he jumped off the bus. This friend recently wrote “that’s the thing with these culturally appropriated remixes - it enforces white supremacy and denounces poc agency into streams of terrorism.” And I think she’s onto something - when a white person wears the keffiyeh, it’s fashionable and hip, but when a person of colour does, it causes folks to become uncomfortable. I guess wearing the keffiyeh in the North is a privilege in itself?
PS: Plaid never goes out of style.
Hmm… well in summer time I get a really dark tan.. and i have bushy eyebrows and I can grow a beard…. that might strike fear into ignorant white people… im white… but only in winter… (damn skin cancer causing sun) I wish that there was more political messages behind fashion… why can’t we wear our beliefs… are we all so desperate to fit in with a non-controversial, corporate conformism… lol spell checker recognized “conformism”……sweet. Next time I see someone with a keffiyeh, im going to smile and nod at them…. thats my way of saying.. hye.. your a human being and i respect you…. in fact.. it doesn’t matter what they are wearing… id do it any way… get the point?
We’re all stuck on this brutish planet, why don;t we try and make it a little less lonely and hate filled.. smile and nod at strangers!!!!!
I love your article! Be proud of who you are… that goes for the rest of you crazy humans out there.
Excuse my silliness Kamal
RAF
“Next time I see someone with a keffiyeh, im going to smile and nod at them…” - and tell them about the tax too (with a smile on your face)!
I dig it Kamal. I admire your guts.
RAF
Wow… I just feel ignorant. But if it’s being sold in fashion stores to people unaware of everything going on in the world, I berate the consumer for their ignorance, but the stores for selling them and turning something meaningful into something frivolous.
I would NOT berate*** as in, I don’t think it’s the consumer’s fault.
-and while informing people of the significance of what they’re wearing and how they can help the situation that it represents is a very good idea which I fully support, I feel it a bit agressive to insist that they donate. I’d just get turned off if someone said “yeah, so you owe these people for ignorantly wearing a keffiyeh”
[…] was, in my mind, no more than another exploited fashion stamp seen around Vancouver, similar to the Keffiyeh. Having a mild aversion to reading newspapers and a shameful tendency to remain blissfully ignorant […]