Few people outside the Bethlehem area have heard of Tahriri embroidery. Fewer still can do it. Unlike the cross-stitch patterns that have made Palestinian embroidery recognizable around the world, Tahriri uses a sophisticated couching technique, carefully laying a thick cord along the fabric's surface and securing it with small stitches of a finer thread. A specialty of the Bethlehem area, Tahriri demands a level of precision and training that has always kept it a rare practice. A few years ago, the Women's Child Care Society (WCCS) in Beit Jala faced a quiet crisis: the number of women in their community who could still practice Tahriri had fallen to only a few.
1. Introducing Tahiri embroidery culture
Historically, Tahriri embroidery held significant cultural importance. Before 1948, affluent residents of Jerusalem would commission Beit Jala artisans to adorn their garments with Tahriri as a symbol of status. This exquisite technique frequently embellished the front panels of wedding dresses, side panels of skirts, and cuffs of traditional Palestinian dresses. Tahriri's signature lies in its mesmerizing circular motifs, often created using qasab, gold or silver cord from Syria, requiring refined skills and graceful hands.
Despite its rich heritage, Tahriri faces the threat of disappearance. The scarcity of skilled trainers, concentrated in a single region, has led to insufficient knowledge transfer between generations. High training costs and the challenge of securing specialized materials further compound the issue, as Tahriri is less common than cross-stitch.
In the town of Beit Jala, WCCS stands as a beacon of hope, working tirelessly to preserve this unique Palestinian artform. For over seven decades, WCCS has expanded its community services while providing embroidery work for women from surrounding villages. The women take fabric and threads home to work while running their households, bring the finished pieces back for payment, and seamstresses sew them up to finished products. It is here, at WCCS, that Sunbula saw an opportunity and a responsibility to act.
2. Keeping the craft alive
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In a vibrant collaboration between Sunbula and the Women Child Care Society (WCCS), a group of talented women recently gathered for an inspiring Tahriri embroidery workshop. This intricate Palestinian embroidery technique was the focus of a dedicated training program aimed at preserving cultural heritage while providing economic opportunities.
This most recent workshop marks the third consecutive training Sunbula has sponsored for WCCS, a significant milestone in what has become a long-term commitment to revitalizing the craft. The need was real: several years ago, the number of skilled Tahriri embroiderers at WCCS had dwindled to only a few, putting the organization's embroidery production — and with it, the livelihoods it supports — at risk. Through successive trainings in 2023, 2024, and now this most recent cycle, Sunbula has steadily grown the pool of skilled embroiderers at WCCS and reinvigorated its craft production. Each cohort of women trained represents not just new skills, but new capacity for the organization to sustain and expand the work it offers.
The workshop spanned one month across 8 sessions and brought together 10 women from the Bethlehem and Hebron area villages, held in-person at the Women Child Care Society. The participants were mothers and homemakers who had been specifically selected for their plans to work as embroiderers at WCCS, and who were eager to contribute to their families' income while building a sustainable craft practice.
Under the guidance of Margo Zeidan, one of the master embroiderers from Beit Jala, participants honed their skills in the art of Tahriri. The atmosphere was energetic with enthusiasm as the women learned to execute a variety of motifs, advancing from the basics to the most complex techniques.
For the women who participated, the workshop was more than a skills training - it was an entry point into economic life, a space for community, and a living act of cultural preservation. At present, after three successive Sunbula-sponsored trainings, that number is growing, and with it, the chances that this extraordinary craft will survive for another generation.
This workshop is about more than product creation. It is about empowerment, cultural preservation, and economic opportunity for Palestinian women. Tahriri embroidery stands as a testament to the resilience and creativity of the artisans who practice it, and Sunbula looks forward to supporting the communities working to ensure it survives with future workshops. Support the revival of this extraordinary craft by shopping Tahriri embroidery at Sunbula here.