a thank you from Sunbula

Sunbula sent the Archive a lovely greeting card as a thank you after a recent fundraiser. 

It took quite a while to reach us because the Australian Government decided a simple greeting card from Jerusalem required opening for inspection!

Sunbula knew we'd love this card for several reasons. Firstly, it was made by women at Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza, a project the Archive has long ties with and has visited in Gaza.

Secondly, Sunbula knew we'd love it's design, showing a Palestinian village woman embroidering,

with a section of real cross stitch positioned within the design.

This is very well designed, and beautifully finished.  Finally, Sunbula knew we'd love the embroidery design used because it's a saru or cypress tree, which is a very important motif in Palestinian embroidery.

The Archive's logo is a saru, and Sunbula use a version of the saru too :)

You can purchase these lovely greeting cards at Sunbula's shop in Jerusalem and also on their website.

More Info:

• Sunbula - website
• Sunbula - Facebook
• Sunbula online shop
• Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza

First Lady Al Sheikha Mozah Visits Atfaluna, Gaza - October 23, 2012

All photos courtesy Atfaluna

 Atfaluna in Gaza being dear to our heart (it seems ages since we visited) we were delighted to read about Qatar's First Lady Al Sheikha Mozah's visit there on October 23, 2012.

We were also delighted to see these photos posted on Atfaluna's Facebook page and hope they don't mind our reproducing them, because we were very intrigued by the First Lady's outfit.

A quick google search turned up no information on who might have designed the garment. Some news reports mistakenly identified it as traditionally Palestinian.  We think it was best described on france24.com:

"Sheikha Moza bint Nasser ... wore an elegant black turban and robe of the same colour with trimmings made of traditional Palestinian cross stitch."

We'd probably have described it as "contemporary Palestinian cross stitch" rather than traditional, but that's because we are pedantic museum curators :)

We also found ourselves discussing whether it was a single robe or an coat with embroidered arm bands and front panels over a black dress with a cross stitched belt. We've seen similar lovely garments styled by Anat in Damascus.

This outfit (like it's wearer) was certainly very elegant. It's always interesting to see Palestinian cross stitched amalgamated successfully with modern Islamic design. We like to document those kind of garments - thus, this post.

If anyone out there can identify this garment further for us, please drop us a line :)