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Here we share the story of four of the women whose embroidery is done with the Arab Orthodox Society's Melia Center. You can order their work through our online store (click here): Our Catalog Women
at the Melia Art & Training Center Traditional
Palestinian Embroidery in the Holy Land Today (2004) Najwa Karaji
from
the village of Halhul near Hebron started working with the Melia Center about 15
years ago. She is a very energetic and determined woman. Although the population
of the village is Muslim, many women there (among them is Najwa), do not cover
their heads and do not wear long dresses the way they do elsewhere. Najwa’s
mother used to travel a lot for business. She was kidnapped and disappeared in
Syria. Najwa was a young woman at that time and she had to take care of her
elderly father, brothers and sisters. She came to the Melia Center asking for
work and started doing embroidery with her sisters. Now she distributes
embroidery work to 30 women in the village. Many women come to her asking for
work. Her husband has even learned how to embroider and does very good work. He
likes taking care of their only daughter who is not in good health. Najwa is a
good mother and a very intelligent and capable business woman. She has built a
house for herself and her family, found husbands for three of her sisters and
sent her brothers to university. To increase her income she found a job as a
door woman for St. Joseph’s girls’ school. The school also intercedes with
the Israeli army to get Najwa a special permit to go and come from the West Bank
to Jerusalem. Besides working in embroidery and keeping a city job Najwa finds
time each year to gather grape leaves, which she brings to Jerusalem to sell.
Thus, Najwa remains connected to the land. To make commuting from Halhul to
Jerusalem shorter and to avoid at least some of the checkpoints, Najwa rented an
apartment in Bethlehem. However, there are times when the Israeli army does not
allow anyone through the checkpoints and then even the permit she has is of no
help, but this does not deter Najwa from climbing up walls and jumping over
fences to get to Jerusalem. She has hurt herself many times by jumping from a
high wall. A few times other women have stolen her huge sack of embroidery which
she threw down from the wall before jumping herself. Israeli soldiers have also
caught her on days of closure and escorted her back to the West Bank. Em
Abed’s (Mother
of Abed) name is Zahwa Hamis (the Fifth Joyful or Proud one). She is from the
village of Deir Sudan not far from Bir Zeit (The Well of Oil). Em Abed is about
seventy years old and has ten children (three sons and seven daughters), all of
whom are married except for two daughters. They live in a very isolated village,
which only started getting electricity a few years ago. Although Em Abed is
illiterate and her health is not very good, she is able to feed her family
including her grand children and many other families by distributing work in
embroidery, in which she also takes part. She is specialized in embroidered
shawls on soft, black material, which is more difficult to work on. She provides
work for many women in her village and the surrounding villages. Her husband is
sick and spends his time lying on the floor of their house. Em Abed also cooks
for the family. They do not have gas, and cook all their food with wood in
stoves. Sometimes the family meal is just bread. They live very poorly. Her sons
and sons-in-law do not allow their wives out of the village, so Em Abed comes to
Jerusalem to get work to feed her family, braving check-points, sleeping under
stairs, waiting for hours to pass, arguing with Israeli soldiers. Once she gets
to Jerusalem she usually needs to lie down for a half hour at the back of the
shop before being able to discuss business. Nina
Karmi: a widow from Jerusalem
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