Keffiyeh

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An Iraqi militiaman wearing a predominantly red keffiyeh in a Kurdish turban style.

The keffiyeh (Arabic: كوفية‎, kūfīyä; plural: Arabic: كوفيات‎, kūfīyāt) is also known as a shmagh (Arabic: شماغ‎, šmāġ), a ghutra (Arabic: غطرة‎, ġuṭrä) or a hatta (Arabic: حطّة‎, ḥaṭṭä).

The keffiyeh is a traditional Arab headdress, made of a square of cloth ("scarf"), usually cotton, folded and wrapped in various styles around the head. It is commonly found in arid climate areas to provide protection from direct sun exposure, as well as for occasional use in protecting the mouth and eyes from blown dust and sand.

Local variations exist. Many Palestinian keffiyeh are a mix of cotton and wool, which lets them dry quickly and keep the wearer's head warm. The keffiyeh is usually folded in half, into a triangle, and the fold is worn across the forehead. Often, the keffiyeh is held in place by a rope circlet, called an agal (Arabic: عقال‎, ʿiqāl). Some wearers wrap the keffiyeh into a turban, while others wear it loosely draped around the back and shoulders. Sometimes a skullcap is worn underneath the keffiyeh, and, in the past, it has also been wrapped around the rim of the fez. The keffiyeh is almost always of white cotton cloth, but many have a checkered pattern in red or black stitched into them. The plain, white keffiyeh is most popular in the Gulf states, almost excluding any other style in Kuwait and Bahrain. The black-and-white keffiyeh is most popular in the Levant. The red-and-white keffiyeh is worn throughout these regions, but is most strongly associated with Jordan.

Keffiyeh is often spelled kaffiyah, keffiya, kaffiya, kufiya or some other variation. These spellings simply show different understandings of the pronunciation in Arabic, which differs from region to region, as well as different methods of transliteration from the Arabic alphabet to the Latin alphabet. The name keffiyeh is purported to come from the name of the city Kufa (Arabic: الكوفة‎, al-kūfä).

The keffiyeh, especially the all-white version, can also be called a ghutra (Arabic: غطرة‎, ġuṭrä), particularly in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain (where the skullcap is confusingly called keffiyeh), but is also known in some areas a shmagh (Arabic: شماغ‎, šmāġ) or a hatta (Arabic: حطّة‎, ḥaṭṭä).

1 Palestinian national symbol
2 Westerners in keffiyeh
- 2.1 Military use
3 External links

[edit] Palestinian national symbol

Yasser Arafat wearing his customary keffiyeh.

In the 1930s, the keffiyeh became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism, as a result of its association with rural areas (as opposed to the city-dweller's fez). It was adopted by many of the Palestinians who supported Grand Mufti Amin al-Husayni during the Great Uprising. The British attempted to ban it in Jenin, and at one point, a British army chief went so far as to propose jailing any Palestinian who wore it, but he was overruled by his superiors. It would later become a trademark symbol of Yasser Arafat, who was rarely seen without a keffiyeh. Arafat would wear the keffiyeh in the traditional manner, around the head and wrapped by an agal, but he also wore in the neckline of his military fatigues.

Another Palestinian figure who is associated with the keffiyeh is Leila Khaled, a female member of the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Several photographs of Khaled circulated in the Western newspapers after the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 and the Dawson's Field hijackings. These often included Khaled wearing a keffiyeh in the style of a Muslim woman's hijab, wrapped around the head and shoulders. This was unusual, as the keffiyeh is associated with Arab masculinity, and many believe this to be something of a fashion statement by Khaled, denoting her equality with men in the Palestinian armed struggle.

Since the outbreak of the First Intifada and the emergence of Hamas as a rival to the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Palestinian Territories, the colors of the stitching in a keffiyeh are now associated with Palestinians' political sympathies. The iconic black-and-white 'Palestinian' keffiyeh is associated with the PLO and Fateh. Green, as the colour associated with Islamism, is also associated with Islamic Jihad. Red, often associated with socialism, also has a pan-Arabist association in the Arab world. It is often worn by militants of the PFLP, PFLP-GC, and DFLP. Red is also the color often worn by civilian supporters of Hamas, though militants generally wear ski masks.

[edit] Westerners in keffiyeh

T. E. Lawrence "gone native".

Likely the best-known Western wearer of the keffiyeh, the British Colonel T. E. Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia) wore a plain white one with agal as an effort to "go native" during his involvement in the Arab Revolt in World War I. This image of Lawrence was later popularized by the film epic about him, Lawrence of Arabia, in which he was played by Peter O'Toole.

Possibly due to the view of Arabs as part of the allies of World War I, the 1920s "silent-film" era of American cinema saw studios take to Orientalist themes of the "exotic" Middle East, and keffiyehs became a part of the wardrobe. These films and their male leads (as with The Sheik and The Son of the Sheik, starring heart-throb actor Rudolph Valentino) typically had Western actors in the role of an Arab wearing the keffiyeh with the agal.

Increased sympathy and activism by Westerners toward Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the years of the Oslo Peace Accords and Second Intifada have led to the wearing of keffiyehs as a sign of their solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian people. While Western protesters wear differing styles and shades of keffiyeh, the most prominent is the black-and-white keffiyeh. This is typically worn around the neck like a neckerchief, knotted in the front with the fabric allowed to drape over the back. Other popular styles include rectangular-shaped scarves with the basic black-and-white pattern in the body, with the ends knitted in the form of flag of Palestine. Since the Al-Aqsa Intifada, these rectangular scarves have increasingly appeared with a combination of the Palestinian flag and Al-Aqsa Mosque printed on the ends of the fabric.

[edit] Military use

For some years, the wearing of the keffiyeh has been almost ubiquitous amongst British soldiers, who exclusively refer to them as shemaghs. Their use by the British Army dates back at least to the Second World War when Special Air Service troops, amongst others, wore them while operating in the deserts of North Africa. After the war, their use by the Army continued with the keffiyeh being worn in both desert and temperate environments in theatres such as Dhofar. Since the beginning of the War on Terror, these keffiyeh, usually cotton and in olive drab or khaki with black stitching, have been adopted by US troops as well. Their practicality in an arid environment, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, explains their constant popularity with soldiers. Soldiers often wear the keffiyeh folded in half into a triangle and wrapped around the face, with the halfway point being placed over the mouth and nose, sometimes coupled with goggles, to keep sand out of the face.

As with other articles of clothing worn in wartime, such as the T-shirt and khaki pants, the keffiyeh has recently become both ethnic and military chic among non-Arab hipsters in the West, who may be uninterested in either politics or the military. In central Europe and major cities of the Americas and Australia, the black-and-white keffiyeh has become a youth fashion accessory, often worn as a scarf.