Symbolism Of The Keffiyeh Symbolism

What is that you are wearing? A question that I have been asked many times whenever I wear my black and white Keffiyeh. The Keffiyeh is a scarf which is a symbol of the Palestinian solidarity. Palestinians feel the connection among each other when wearing it whether they are in Palestine or in any other country. The pattern in the Keffiyeh turned nowadays into a fashion trend. In this paper I will be talking about the Keffiyeh as a cultural symbol and how it became a fashion trend stating after that my opinion about it and other people opinions. I used interview as a method to know more about what people do see and think about the Keffiyeh.
In Palestinians tradition, the Keffiyeh has been worn mostly by men as a headdress. The Keffiyeh is
This is exactly what made the Keffiyeh an easy target to be worn as one of the fashion accessories throughout America, Japan, and most of Europe. Clearly, if most Palestinians are forgetting the real meaning of the Keffiyeh then most of the non-Palestinian Keffiyeh wearers are ignorant of its real meaning for sure and only do wear it for fashion reasons and discard it easily when it is not in season no more. Not only that, but also Israel started branding the Keffiyeh as it is their own which is pretty ironic since they once upon a time referred to it as "terrorist" symbolism. And of course, we have those who, believing that they understand what the true symbolism of the Keffiyeh is, have branded it as being "political statement supporting to the Islamic terrorism against Israel," and "anti-Semitic." Little do they know is that the democracy in the Middle East countries uses every method of psychological warfare as a lethal weapon to damage and disrupt culture and history, affecting the world and sadly, the occupied Palestinians as well. The worst part here that this sudden and huge popularity does not benefit the Palestinians in any
Many celebrities started wearing the Keffiyeh as the new style and fashion trend. For example, Jon Audarson, from Iceland, was one the first fashion designers who had a collection of Keffiyeh designs which he called "My Arab Cowboy Shirt." Quentin Tarantino, a celebrity, wore Audarson's shirt and interestingly, he was never criticized for wearing it. Passing time we reach 2007 where the Keffiyeh was launched online as men’s new featured accessory in Urban Outfitters in their spring catalogue. Interestingly, they marketed this catalogue as an “anti-war woven scarf,” but then they stopped marketing it as such and apologized to some Israeli activist because they did not intend to support terrorism or terrorists. In the same year, DNR, Men’s fashion magazine, names the Keffiyeh as “The Most Provocative Fashion Trend” of 2007. By 2008, the Keffiyeh was so every day in the U.S. fashionable scarves which was being sold in variety of colors. In 2009, thing started to change and the Keffiyeh started to be petering out as the high fashion trend in Europe and the U.S. but yet it is still there in the fashion accessories category. The Keffiyeh later on, become one of these styles which has become so much associated with stereotype images of hipsters, people who follow the latest fashion trends instead of being the trendsetters. The issue with hipsterdom is that it claims that the Keffiyeh was and used to be a trendy