Widad Kawar is an internationally renowned collector of Palestinian and Jordanian ethnic and cultural arts. She was born in Tulkarem but grew up in Bethelem. Widad received her education in the Ramallah Quaker School. She studied at the American University of Beirut.

Ramallah and Bethlehem, both considered significant cultural heritage centers in Palestine, had a tremendous impact on Widad as a young girl.

During some vacations at her mother´s town Widad began to appreciate the nature of Palestinian village life in the 1940s. She started to learn about costumes and embroidery and she felt in love with that art. In the time she spent in Aboud, every day after lunch many women got together and embroider.

With the time she got married and settled in Jordan where she volunteered in Hussein and Wihdat refugee camps. Widad was a member of the YMCA as well as the Women’s Auxiliary of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, a special body created after the Palestinian exodus in 1948.

The war of 1967 was an extraordinary human drama and Widad and all the Palestinians saw Palestine occupied. She began to collect geneuine pieces before they were lost or influenced by the new life in the refugee camps.

She collected marriage dresses, cushion covers, home decorations, weaving, pottery, handicrafts, belts, head covers jewelry and straw work.

After the war she began to meet women in different villages and cities in Palestine and she understood the way their roles had changed with the occupation and their position in the family, their attachment to their heritage and their endurance to keep a family together under that situation.

The women whose heritage Widad has collected remain her inspiration. They have honored her by sharing their sad and happy memories of the past with her. They inspired her to pass on their rich cultural heritage to future generations.

Actually, Kawar is known as Umm l’ibas al-falastini—the mother of Palestinian dress.

She has amassed an extensive collection of dresses, costumes, textiles, and jewelry over the past 50 years, seeking to preserve part of the heritage of Palestine. Kawar´s collection is the largest to date of Palestinian traditional dress and accessories comprising more than 3,000 items.

She has made her collection available for public viewing and has mounted exhibits of Palestinian dress around the world.

For her each item fo her collection calls to mind an individual: a wife, a mother, a daughter, a family. Each item reminds her of a place: a village, a town, a house, a market. Each item was worn on special occasions by a special person.

She has written many books on Palestinian embroidery. Recently, she collaborated with Margaret Skinner on A Treasury of Stitches: Palestinian Embroidery Motifs, 1850–1950(Rimal/Melisende). Widad is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Center for Oriental Research.

Her latest and most important book is Threads Of Identity a history of Palestinian women told through aspects of popular heritage, focusing on traditional dresses but also including textiles and rug weaving, rural and urban customs, jewellery, cuisine, and festivities. The interviews with women who lived through the traumas and changes of the 20^th century are a contribution to oral history, augmenting standard historical accounts. While most writing about the Middle East concentrates on politics, her book focuses on the dignity of ordinary people, and women in particular, bridging the gap between the major events of history and everyday life. With this book Widad Kamel Kawar pays homage to Palestinian women.

After years of collection, she recently established Tiraz, a home for the largest collection of Arab dress, containing over 3,000 costumes and weavings from the 19th and 20th centuries. Her dream now is to develop the center and keep the traditions of embroidery alive.

Each piece belongs to a particular time, a particular tribe or village, with an individual story to tell.

Tiraz is a place to exhibit and combine these stories for the public in Jordan and the Middle East, as well as for cultural centres and institutions around the world. To be celebrated and understood, and collection must be seen and experienced.

Words alone cannot capture the spirit and immediacy of the embroidered patterns; the sensitivity, diversity and the richness of their forms.

Tiraz will curate, describe and explore these forms, expressed in the seams of each garment, in a way which historians and visitors from all over the world will come to appreciate, and remember.

Awards

• Directorate of Heritage Award of the Government of Sharjah, 2014
• Prince Klaus International Award for culture and development, 2012
• Jordan Tourism Medal for her role in organizing the Seville World Expo, 1992
• King Hussein Medal, 1993
• Medal for Jarash Festival, 1986

List of Publications

The list below includes authored publications as well as contribution towards publications, especially exhibit catalogues.

• Threads of Identity: Preserving Palestinian Culture and Heritage – Amman, Jordan [2011]
• Contribution to BERG Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion Volume Four on Central and South West Asia [2010]
• Bethlehem: From Golden Threads to Cement Blocks – Amman, Jordan [2005]
• Cultural Treasures of Jordan [2001]
• Palestinian Embroidery, Traditional Fallahi Stitch. With Tania Nasir. National Ethnic Museum -Munich, Germany [1992]
• Costumes Speak. With Sally de Vries. Jordan Magazine – Washington, United States
• National Costumes of Jordan. The Art of Jordan. Museum of Mersyside – Liverpool, England
• 2000 Years of color. Kawar Collection and Mosaics of Jordan. Moesgard Museum – Aarhus, Denmark [1991]
• Memoire de Soie. Institute du Monde Arabe – Paris, France [1988]
• Pracht Und Geheimnis. Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum – Munich, Germany [1987]
• Costumes and Wedding Customs in Bayt Dajan. With Shelagh Weir. [1984]
• Weaving in Jordan – Amman, Jordan [1981]
• Costumes Dyed by the Sun – Tokyo, Japan [1982]

 Exhibitions

Some of the items of her big collection

Hebron

 Jaffa

 Gaza

Head Cover Jerusalem                                                       Head Cover Galilee

Bracelets                                                                                                    Necklaces

Cross Stitch

Pottery

 Weavings

Sources:

– http://www.arabheritage.org

– http://tirazcentre.org

Further readings:

-Presentation of 2012 Prince Claus Award to Widad Kawar

http://www.princeclausfund.org/es/news/presentation-of-2012-prince-claus-award-to-widad-kawar.html

– Widad Kawar – Every Dress Tells A Story

http://beamman.com/historic-and-cultural/1085-widad-kawar-tiraz