REAL TRAVEL ADVENTURES

Threads of Identity by Widad Kamel Kawar is a most fascinating compendium of the heritage of Palestine through costumes and fabrics. The author is one of the foremost authorities on the subject and her collection of stories, photographs of costumes, weavings, rugs, and fabrics from different regions of Palestine seems to be all inclusive. Her intention with the book is to document and preserve the history of Palestine through the 20th century as women experienced and remembered it in oral tradition. Women who survived the traumas and persecutions of this recent history endured many hardships while continuing their survival through the creation of fabrics for their family's use and for sale.

This is an important book in that it documents a country, not from the perspective of war and politics as most histories do, but from the perspective of the common people, mainly women, who have always had to be the backbone of the family and society during hard times. And the fabrics have always been a woven history of a place.

A beautiful as well as interesting book I highly recommend.

Published online by Real Travel Adventures International Magazine (Bill & Bonnie Neely)