In embroidery an embrace of Palestine
Inspirational is probably one of the best words to describe Siham Abu Ghazaleh. Strong, determined, hard-working, warm, and wise are some others. With her death at the age of 80 on June 26th, 2021 the community lost a humanitarian leader, an exceptional mentor, and a steadfast campaigner for the Palestinian cause. For nearly fifty years she tirelessly promoted Palestinian embroidery, an age-old art form that symbolizes the Palestinian national identity, and organised the wonderful bi-annual cultural exhibitions that showcase the rich heritage of Palestine and shed light on a culture under siege.
Siham’s upcoming book, titled “Sew to Speak,” was being printed just a few days before she passed away. According to her publisher at Interlink, the book “tells the moving story of one Palestinian woman and her 50-year quest to safeguard Palestinian culture through the preservation and promotion of its national costume. It is also an effort to document the vital contributions of the General Union of Palestinian Women, a group of dedicated volunteers who have worked tirelessly to preserve Palestinian identity and culture through love, conviction, pride and hope.”
Siham was instrumental in the organisation and success of the union, and her documentation of these efforts is another facet of her ongoing legacy.
According to Siham’s daughter, Faten, and son, Waleed, events in their mother’s childhood in Palestine were a catalyst for her becoming an activist later in life. She grew up in the beautiful seaside town of Jaffa. Her father was financially comfortable as a senior official in the Finance Ministry under the British Mandate. Jaffa is famous for its sweet, juicy oranges and Siham’s father used his life savings to buy orange groves. The formation of Israel in 1948 led to the loss of all his beloved groves and an ensuing decline in his health from utter sadness.
By this time the Abu Ghazaleh family had moved to Nablus. “My mother used to sit on the window sill of their home where she could see a nearby school filled with Palestinian refugees living in dire conditions,” says Faten. “Her oldest sister, who was twelve years older than her, used to go and help the refugees and my mother soon started joining her. One day, when my mother broke down in tears because of the suffering she had witnessed, her sister told her to stop wasting her energy crying and try to think of practical solutions to help the refugees. My mother was only eight years old but this experience made a deep impression on her.”
Nablus is the Abu Ghazaleh family’s ancestral home. “The house was hundreds of years old, made of local stone with walls more than a meter thick. My grandparents lived there with their ten children, as did my grandfather’s brothers,” says Faten. “On the ground floor was a pharmacy belonging to the Abu Ghazaleh family, who worked in pharmacies and medicine for generations.”
By the time the children were getting to be of university age, the family had fallen on hard times, with the Abu Ghazaleh’s patriarch losing not only his orange groves but also his job, which had been secure under the British Mandate. Nevertheless he managed to ensure that all his offspring completed college, with three becoming university professors and one a medical doctor.
Another severe blow to the family was the death of Siham’s mother when Siham was just twelve years old. The children all took up different responsibilities in the household, with Siham preparing the family meals and becoming a fabulous cook as a result.
“My mother had to grow up very quickly,” Faten remarks.
In 1958, when Siham was eighteen years old, her life changed dramatically when Mahmoud Abu Ghazaleh arrived in Nablus and came to the family home asking for her hand in marriage. Waleed takes up the narrative of events.
“My mother was very beautiful and had many marriage proposals but she was always dead set against them. When she was called to serve refreshments to her suitors she was known to spill the coffee or put salt in it.”
According to Waleed, the day his father came to visit, his mother had no idea he was coming and opened the door casually dressed wearing shorts. He and the female relative accompanying him had arranged a secret code between them so he could let her know his opinion of his potential bride, and with one look at the fair-haired beauty he said the words indicating he definitely approved.
Although the introduction was an arranged one between members of the same extended family, this time Siham was agreeable to the match. According to Faten and Waleed, their grandfather was very progressive in his thinking and would never have forced his daughter into a marriage against her will. His only demand from her groom was that he allow her to go to university.
Mahmoud Abu Ghazaleh was working as Director of the Public Relations Department of Kuwait Oil Company, so it was in Kuwait that Siham began a new chapter in her life filled with new challenges.
“As the wife of the head of public relations, my mother had many responsibilities and led a very active life. And after having two children she was busier than ever but she managed to continue her education. Her English matriculation certificate issued under the British Mandate in Palestine was not recognised in Kuwait so she had to resit the exams. She passed with flying colors and then entered Kuwait University in 1966, the same year it was established, earning a degree in sociology with a minor in psychology in the university’s first graduating class,” says Faten.
From 1972 to 1980, Siham served as Assistant Director of the Cultural Department at Kuwait University. Also in the early ’70s Siham began working with the newly-established Kuwait chapter of the Palestinian Women’s Union. This is the work that was to dominate the rest of her life.
“As a career woman, my mother was able to add structure to the group and help the other women, many of whom were housewives and had no professional or volunteer experience. She aided them in learning formal procedures such as how to set bylaws and implement rules and regulations. In the beginning she was often frustrated by volunteers arriving late to meetings, files being kept in a haphazard manner, and other things indicating a lack of seriousness on the part of some of the ladies. She even briefly gave up but was convinced to give it another try and from then on things went more smoothly,” Faten remarks.
Siham joined several committees and led a literacy campaign and a vocational training program, teaching women how to embroider and sew. Among the Union’s goals was promoting the continuing practice of traditional Palestinian embroidery and ensuring that needy Palestinian women in Kuwait be able to earn an income through the sale of their work.
All activities ground to an abrupt halt with Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait and the union’s Kuwait branch was closed. Some of the members began regrouping in Amman, Jordan. Unions were not allowed in Jordan, so the organisation became the Palestinian Cultural Center (PCC), with Siham as its Co-Founder, Deputy Head, and Head of the Culture Committee.
Among the ladies who used to flock to Siham’s house for meetings were many needy women, with large numbers of them living in refugee camps. The only means most of these women had of supporting themselves and their families was to sell traditional embroidered dresses and other needlework items that they made. In order to help them, the Center began commissioning specific pieces for the women to embroider. A multi-faceted, productive partnership that has carried on to this day was reborn.
“At that time my mother was shuttling back and forth between Amman and Kuwait. She realised that the women needed a bigger market for their embroidery and began selling some pieces in Kuwait with the help of Samia Zuwaiter, a Kuwaiti-Palestinian friend, and some other Kuwaiti supporters,” says Faten.
Initially, the embroidery exhibitions were held twice a year in Siham’s home. Then came exhibitions at Boushari and Dar Al Funoon art galleries, followed by one at the Graduates Society in the year 2000. This event opened the door for other NGOs in Kuwait, such as the Kuwait Red Crescent and the Kuwait Women’s Cultural and Social Society, to collaborate with the Center.
Through Siham’s capable and dedicated leadership, the exhibitions became vibrant, popular events with people of all different nationalities in the local community greatly looking forward to them. More than 500 needy Palestinian women in Jordan are employed to embroider by the Center, which demands a very high standard of work. Income generated by the PCC has also paid for over 115 university scholarships for top Palestinian students, offering hope to those born into a hopeless situation.
Siham and her tireless team of volunteers have made sure the traditional embroidery is also an art form that is constantly evolving to meet the needs of a modern society. As a result, Palestinian embroidery can be found adorning everything from mobile phone and iPad covers to decorative household items, trendy clothing, and fashion accessories.
“I think one of the reasons my mother was able to accomplish so much and be so successful is that she hardly slept,” Faten muses. “She suffered from insomnia and would get up at around 3:00 a.m., then pray the fajr prayer and read the Quran, and then start working. In those early morning hours she would design new items and take care of correspondence and administrative work. She was on a mission and her work was an obsession.”
Besides being so driven and passionate about her work, Siham was also a great people person. She had the special ability of being able to easily connect with others; when speaking to someone in a crowded room full of people she would make that person feel they had her undivided attention. She motivated people and got the best from them.
“Since my mother passed away so many of the people who contacted me mentioned her smile, her warmth, and her humility. By nature she was a very empathetic person,” says Faten.
Longtime volunteer Abeer Nasser expressed her feelings about Siham with the following words, “To me she represented the true sense of volunteerism and working collectively towards improving the welfare of many deprived Palestinian families. She was a beacon of hope and optimism. Our community will miss her terribly.”
Once at an exhibition, when asked how she managed to continue her mission year after year without becoming discouraged, Siham replied, “When I look at all this needlework I think of the women who did it and how they have to struggle … Many women need to make and sell as many embroidered items as possible in order to pay for health care and schooling for their children. There are so many that are trying to do something to improve the quality of life for their families, people who have the roof falling down over their heads in refugee camps, and their embroidery is their only source of income. Your heart goes out to them, and that’s why we have to continue, because there is no alternative.”
The embroidery exhibitions also sell Palestinian food, ceramics, paintings, and books on Palestine. At each exhibition a number of newsworthy issues are highlighted, thus providing a means to disseminate accurate information about the political and humanitarian crisis in Palestine.
Through Siham’s efforts to bring the sights, sounds, and tastes of traditional Palestinian culture to the public, she also educated young Palestinians who have never been able to see their own country. “I have had the pleasure of working with new generations of Palestinians who hear about their culture through our programs and exhibitions. They love to learn about their identity and as a result they begin to understand who they really are,” Siham once said.
Throughout the course of her life, Siham never stopped working. Besides her work in Kuwait and Amman she gave lectures and organised exhibitions in many other locations around the world. She felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to her volunteers and to the women who were employed to embroider by the Center. According to Faten, during her final days in the Kuwait Cancer Control Center, Siham gave instructions from her hospital bed that those 500 women needed to continue to be able to live from the Center’s revenues. She also answered messages on her phone with the help of a friend who held the phone and pressed the microphone button while she recorded brief voice messages.
In one such message to a volunteer and friend Siham characteristically remarked, “The first week of chemo is hard but with the family around me, it’s like there’s a beautiful breeze. They cover me with their love and their beautiful hearts, so actually I don’t suffer.”
Siham’s book, “Sew to Speak,” was being printed on the day she went into hospital. “She had the satisfaction of knowing that it was being printed but sadly, she wasn’t able to hold a copy,” Waleed says.
Waleed edited and designed his mother’s book and is himself the author of a book called “Love Wins: Palestinian Perseverance Behind Walls.” He is Managing Partner at Khayal Consultants and is in charge of creative design. Faten is also a Managing Partner of the same company and is in charge of Marketing Consulting. She is also very much involved in all aspects of the Palestinian Cultural Center and the exhibitions, describing her role as “jack-of-all-trades.”
An announcement issued by Siham’s publisher after her death said that to honor her legacy, an olive tree will be planted in her name in Palestine for every copy of her book that’s ordered. Summing up the book, the Interlink Publisher wrote, “In short, ‘Sew to Speak’ leaves for future generations an important historical record that chronicles how Palestinians from all walks of life fought for their humanity, education, identity, and dignity on a daily basis—peacefully, but passionately.”
Siham Abu Ghazaleh lived her life well and to the fullest, with not a moment wasted. For her loved ones, the community, and the members of the Palestinian Cultural Center, her death has left a tremendous void. Her warm and inspirational presence will always be remembered and greatly missed.