rashida tlaib dress

@rashidatlaib/Instagram

Palestinian women share photos of their thobes for Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s swearing-in

The traditional gowns hold their ancestors' stories.

Photo of Samira Sadeque 

Samira Sadeque

IRL

Posted on Jan 3, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 10:17 pm CDT

In what is probably one of the most anticipated swearing-in ceremonies in recent history, a record number of women and minorities are becoming official members of Congress today. Palestinian women, in particular, are celebrating on social media with a special homage to their heritage.

In solidarity with the first-ever Palestinian-American congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who announced last month on Instagram that she was wearing a traditional Palestinian gown, women are sharing photos of their thobes on social media with #TweetYourThobe.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrYkJU5ASt3/?utm_source=ig_embed

Each thobe, traditional Palestinian clothing for women, has a specific tatreez embroidery design, which entails the stories of the woman’s heritage, hometown, and ancestry.

“It’s a form of art, it’s a form of expressing your relationship with the women who are your ancestors, with your mother, your grandmother,” Susan Muaddi Darraj, a Palestinian-American award-winning author and professor who started the #TweetYourThobe trend, told the Daily Dot. “A lot of people today are posting dresses that their great-great-grandmother stitched and designed, it’s a way of tracing that lineage.”

Women are pouring into Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, showing off their tatreez designs.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsLm8_Whftg/

https://twitter.com/ElmazWrites/status/1080816417589477376

https://twitter.com/ShezzaADallal/status/1080808597620252672

“I wanted to do something that would educate people about our culture,” Darraj said of creating the hashtag. “Also, the dresses are really imbued with symbolism and meaning because they’re often passed down from mother to daughter and they’re hand-stitched. They’re actually a form of artwork by Palestinian women.”

Darraj explained that every village in Palestine has its own particular style of throbe and women wear theirs in different colors according to their villages.

“If you look closely…there are particular symbols within each dress, you can see symbols from nature. [In] certain towns that are known for their orange, for example, the women will stitch the symbol of the orange into the dress. So you can look at a woman and you know where she’s from,” she says. “It’s a form of identity as well.”  

To honor the tradition, many are sharing photos of their mothers and ancestors in their thobes, too.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsJ5-d5AG1r/

https://twitter.com/LKTuffaha/status/1080821835023949825

And then there are the adorable baby photos.

https://twitter.com/hanaknafeh/status/1080845869581299712

When Darraj initially announced the campaign on Twitter a few weeks ago, she received some backlash. She even had to block people who were harassing her, and eventually moved the hashtag over to a private Facebook event over privacy concerns. The event had more than 7,000 invitees and close to 500 people “attending” as of Thursday afternoon. 

However, by the swearing-in, numerous people were responding on Twitter in the way the hashtag was intended. Many were also posting in solidarity with the larger Palestinian community.

https://twitter.com/peachyjew/status/1080826021635608578

https://twitter.com/LindseyJonesR/status/1080822407055712256

Just seeing her Twitter flooded with the traditional artwork has made it “one of the best days” of her life, says Darraj. “It just spread like wildfire. People are so excited to share their dresses. And we all have those dresses, so we kind of wanted to celebrate with [Tlaib].”

Tlaib herself was joined by some in thobes this morning.

“Being Palestinian American, we contribute to this country, we love this country, and to see a woman who is joining both her Palestinian heritage with her duty as an American congresswoman is going to be a terrific thing,” Darraj said. “I’m just so proud that she chose to wear that dress.”

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*First Published: Jan 3, 2019, 1:19 pm CST

Samira Sadeque

Samira Sadeque is a New York-based journalist reporting on immigration, sexual violence, and mental health, and will sometimes write about memes and dinosaurs too. Her work also appears in Reuters, NPR, and NBC among other publications. She graduated from Columbia Journalism School, and her work has been nominated for SAJA awards. Follow: @Samideque

Samira Sadeque