S4E8 of Tatreez Talk: What a Thobe Holds with Amani Albahri
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This episode of Tatreez Talk features my first-ever conversation with Amani Albahri, thobe collector and founder of Tantura—and from the start, it felt like I was speaking with someone who deeply understood the heart of my work. Amani shares moving stories about her grandmother, her collection, and the cultural meaning held within every garment. Her reflections beautifully echoed what I’ve long believed: making a thobe is more than embroidery—it’s an act of remembering, reclaiming, and embedding your story into every stitch. If you’ve ever wondered why thobe-making matters or how our clothes carry ancestral wisdom, this episode will stay with you.
Episode Shownotes
AMANI ALBAHRI IS THE FOUNDER OF TANTURA AND A THOBE COLLECTOR WHOSE WORK CENTERS PALESTINIAN MEMORY AND MATERIAL CULTURE (@TANTURA.CO). Through stories of her family and her collection, Amani offers a powerful reminder that thobes are not just garments—they are vessels of story, survival, and identity. Her reflections sparked deep conversations about what it means to embed yourself in a thobe, not just understand what was embedded by others.
One of the most moving takeaways was the story of Amani’s grandmother making diwali while recounting her experience of the Nakba—transforming painful memories into ritual and connection. The act of repetition, storytelling, and hands-on creation became a form of healing and legacy. This is why Tatreez Talk exists: to make space for these stories, and to show that embroidery is just one of many ways we carry culture.
Not everyone connects to stitching, and that’s okay. This episode highlights how collecting, admiring, and learning about thobes can be just as meaningful. Whether through thread or through storytelling, connecting to Palestinian history and resilience is available to us all.
Check out the tantura.co website!
You’ll hear about:
>> 0:57: Amani’s connection to Palestine
>> 5:56: The stories of Amani’s grandparents
>> 12:43: How tatreez showed up for Amani
>> 16:35: Collecting thobes
>> 31:14: Advice for Palestinians in diaspora who want to rescue our thobes
>> 34:00: Tantura thobe exhibits and how to collaborate with her
>> 44:39: Major life lesson from tatreez
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Transcript
Lina: Hi stitchers! Welcome to Tatreez talk, where we share conversations about Palestinian embroidery. I'm Lina here with my co-host Amani, chatting with talented embroiderers and artists sharing their stories, inspirations, and the cultural significance behind their work.
Amanne: Today we are joined by another Amani Selina. You got 2 Amanis today. Our other Amani is the founder of Tantura, a clothing and Beauty Company, and she is a Thobe collector who does exhibits under Tantura. I'm really excited to talk about that. Welcome to Tatreez talk. Amani
Amani: Thank you guys for having me. I'm really excited for us to chit chat about the buddies and kind of nerd out today and
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: Share stories, and I'm all for it. Very happy to be here. Thank you for having me
Lina: Amazing. Okay. Well, Amani, with an I cause in reference to you.
Lina: Can you share with our listeners a little bit about you and your family's connection to Palestine
Amani: Yeah, so I'm half Palestinian, half Irish. So my father is Palestinian and my grandparents. My grandmother is from Sufuria, which is in the Galili, in the north of Palestine, and my grandfather is from Tantura, which is in Haifa, and it's a small fishing village in the south of Haifa
Amani: Just to kind of give like inside stories of my grandparents.
Amani: They're from 1948,
Amani: and they were ethnically cleansed from their lands. My grandfather's village Tantura was actually brutally massacred, and that is a very heavy scar for my grandfather growing up.
Amani: He used to talk about Tantura very lovingly, and talk about him swimming with his siblings in the sea.
Amani: And so my family, even though that was his village. They also lived in the central part of parts of Haifa, and that's what a lot of families did, especially when their kids got older. They moved to the central part, and probably had they had 2 houses, so my grandfather used to go down there for like the weekends or break
Amani: And yeah, I grew up listening to a lot of storytelling about the sea, and my family were actually fishermen from Tantura, and that's hence our last name is El Bahri. So we're very proud of our last name, and I grew up here in San Diego, born and raised, and my dad pretty much instilled in us that our way of Samud was by practicing our fishing tradition. So we've upheld that fishing tradition for several generations now.
Amani: And so yeah, I grew up
Amani: fishing and swimming off Mission Bay in San Diego. And yeah, that's kind of our way of resistance on my grandfather's side, and then my grandmother's side is like she has that farmer spirit, I would say. My grandmother is very grounded.
Amani: very spiritual. She has this tenderness to her, while my grandfather is like more of the
Amani: daredevil. He's more risky. He's like he's like the sea. He has. You know he has the ups and downs. He's he's very emotional, my grandmother, you can tell. She's very connected to the land. They were olive farmers and tobacco farmers in Safuria, and I grew up listening to all her storytelling. I've recorded everything that she has shared with me, and
Amani: she was just a beautiful woman. I wish to Inshallah be one day. And yeah, that's kind of about my grandparents.
Amani: And then they had my father and he lived in a refugee camp in Lebanon, in Tripoli, called Badawi
Amani: in 1962. And yeah.
Amani: And that's pretty much my family story. And then my father came to the States when he was about 16.
Amani: And life here. Yeah, he was very young. Yeah.
Amanne: And he he settled by the beach. He knew he knew
Amani: Yeah.
Amani: We make this joke in my family like, we're we're not people that can be land bound
Amanne: We
Amani: Always have to be at a coast.
Amani: Yeah, it's just it's in us, like, I think people I feel like don't understand this, but, like the sea, is a very integral part of me.
Amanne: Hmm.
Amani: I can't imagine my life without it. So yeah.
Lina: Wow! What a beautiful description of your grandparents! I want to be like that, too.
Lina: I love that
Lina: I love it. And then also, we love the Irish. I'm curious about yeah. Your mom's side
Amani: That's my mom. Yeah. So we're American, Irish. We our families from Belfast, Ireland.
Amani: And yeah, my mom's side is more of like, how do you say the poor Irish? Very poor Irish family? And yeah, and that's
Amanne: Okay.
Amani: My parents like really understood each other like my dad did not have to explain to my mom too much about struggling, and what occupation or colonialism
Amanne: It's a lot
Amani: Like, you know, my mom just got it. And she understood my dad. And that's definitely how they connected. And yeah, my mom is very pro Palestinian. Yeah, that's it's just the Irish. That's how we are. So
Amanne: Definitely
Amani: Very outspoken, very loud, very familiar.
Amanne: All these things, but
Lina: Amanne can relate.
Amanne: Yes.
Amani: Yeah. So that's that's about my family. Kind of like a background for you guys, too.
Amanne: Yeah. Yeah. And how did your family's like stories, especially like your grandparents? Stories like, how did that shape? Your Palestinian identity growing up in diaspora?
Amani: Oh, heavily. Everything about me and my identity has been shaped, I believe, by my grandparents and the storytelling, and from my father as well.
Amani: I started. I remember my 1st memory of learning about the Nakba was from my grandmother, and I was about 5 years old when I heard the story for the 1st time. I knew we were Palestinian. I knew that we were displaced, but I didn't know how or where we you know I didn't have that, and as a child you kind of fill in the blanks when you don't
Amanne: You know. Know the answers
Amani: My grandmother actually sat me down. It was like a hot summer day, and she was making what I end up, and she was like running around the kitchen. She's trying to prepare dinner.
Amani: and you know what it takes like
Lina: Yeah.
Amani: 6 h.
Amani: you know. So she's running around and she's like, listen, I need you to sit down. Sit down.
Amani: And usually my data was like very gentle, very soft. She like, Let me go play and do what I wanted. But today she was like very like this urgency.
Amani: And so I listened to her because I was like, I have not seen her that way.
Amani: So I sat down at the table, and I was watching her, and she's like I need you to. I need you to listen to me, Habeebti. I need you to listen to what I'm about to share with you
Amani: and she's like she's rolling the. And she starts telling me that I was from a village called Sephuria.
Amani: and this is where this tradition of storytelling starts for me as a child, where every time we sat down at the table to make wara2 3ineb, she tells me the story over and over again, and it was like a
Amani: kind of like a cassette player. Once the what I end up starts rolling, the tape starts playing.
Amani: and I heard the story repeatedly over my life, and it was every time we sat down to make what I know
Amanne: And
Amani: And she tells me, basically, when the Zionists came, they were flying over Sufuria, and they were dropping leaflets
Amani: in Arabic and in Hebrew, basically forcing them to evacuate and telling them, if they don't leave, that they will be killed.
Amani: And she tells me that they were dropping explosives, and people were dying.
Amani: Yeah. And she said that people were very panicked, and they had heard, like a lot of rumors from other villages that people were being massacred and raped, and my great grandfather, which was her father.
Amani: He had 10 kids, and he's a he's a farmer.
Amani: and he immediately takes all his kids and his wife, and even his nieces and nephews, because some of the men, I think, were not present. I think maybe we're traveling or getting kids from other cities because you have to think about it like there are kids that are probably in Haifa studying, which was the case in our family.
Amani: So he goes, and he hides all of them in the orchards.
Amani: And he, she tells me, like I remember you know my bubba hiding us in the orchards at night, and us sleeping in the orchards because they were too afraid to sleep in their house that night.
Amani: and they left around right before dawn.
Amani: and she has them ever. She tells me my dad put me
Amani: in a basket on the side of a donkey, and he put my one year old sister on the other side of the donkey.
Amani: and as a child I'm trying to imagine all this imagery like planes flying over Safuria, them bombing this beautiful town.
Amani: which was actually like known to be like the the pearl of the Galili Safuria used to be the capital of the Galili, and then it turned into Safat later in time.
Amani: And
Amani: because of its it's on. It's positioned on a hillside. It's very strategic, like military wise. So when the Romans came in. They used it as their military point.
Amani: so it was definitely an interest for the Zionists to come in and take that town because of how strategic it was in order to take over the rest of the Galile
Amani: so basically, as a child, I just remember being in shock
Amani: was the 1st thing I couldn't imagine. She had went through something so traumatic.
Amani: and I felt such deep empathy for her. But when she tells me the story her voice never shook. She never cried.
Amani: You know. She was very stoic
Amani: when she would tell the story to me and very focused
Amani: and again. She's like rolling what I know. That's kind of like the imagery I have. I never saw her show any
Amani: how do I say?
Amani: Grief
Amani: Only until her last moments with me in life, and that was she passed away in 2
Amani: 2020. So even right now, when I tell the story I shake, and I I you guys, can hear my voice. But when she tells it
Amani: it was just she had processed it
Amani: And I think that her family used to roll water and talk about the nequa. I think that was a way that they process their trauma together collectively. And you know, like, when you're making wara2 3ineb, everyone has to join in. It's a collective. How do you say? Food that everyone needs to help out
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: You know.
Amani: so I think that her family used what I know as a way to sit down in a calm state where the mind can process, and you're not moving around you. Just you have to sit down. You have to be patient.
Amani: you know.
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: And you see the same in Tatreez. When women are doing Tatreez collectively, they're sitting down. Their hands are busy, but their minds travel to different places.
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: Know. So I think that was the equivalent for her and her family.
Amani: but yeah, I I repeatedly heard this story over my life, and traditionally, it was told over making water in a
Amani: And it was bitter and sour and sweet. And yeah, it was.
Amani: Yeah. So that's kind of my, Theta story
Amanne: That's a beautiful way to like. Have that story told to you, and to be able to carry that on. You know you mentioned Tetris, and I think it's kind of the perfect segue into talking about your Tetris journey, and how Tetris showed up in your life
Amanne: growing up up, and when you started to practice that these
Amani: Yeah, so interesting. My Teta did not know how to. And when I got older, and because she used to bring thobes to us from Ahmed, and because we tell her that we you know we want thobes we want, you know. And even before that, before we knew what a thobe was. She was the one who introduced me and my sisters to thobes, so she'd bring them overseas to us for aid, and we would be wearing them, and just feel so beautiful in them.
Amani: And when I got older I said, Can you teach me?
Amani: And she told me that I don't know how to trees and
Amani: she was actually very sad. She looked down at the ground and was like very shameful about it.
Amani: And I asked her, I said.
Amani: did your mom, she said. My mom knew how.
Amani: and she tried to explain to me like, when you live in a refugee camp, when you don't have money when you're just trying to survive. There's no time to teach your daughter
Amani: how to do, Tatreez. You don't even have the resources, you know. Like, if I think, as a family, you'd probably see it as like what a waste of time
Amani: You know.
Amani: So she's like, yeah, my mother knew how. So that's where we were severed from Tatreez. So about 3 generations now, I. So I do not know how to do Tatreez.
Amani: And so after she, I had learned that she doesn't know how I was like, Okay, I need to find a teacher.
Amani: So I was living in the Bay Area at the time, and I started going to like haflas and engagements, and I would like go up to the Tetas and the and I'd be like, Hey, can you like? Teach me how to? I'm like very dedicated. I will show up. I will pay you. I will do anything. And they were like shocked. They were like, kind of like, who is this girl what's going on?
Amani: And a lot of them. All of them turned me down. Not one
Amanne: Really.
Amani: Yeah. They altered me down
Amanne: Girl! Oh.
Amani: This is before. This is like, I wanna say, like, 11 years ago, no
Amani: and I was just heartbroken. I was just like, how am I gonna learn? This is like, before these kids before classes, like, right? Yeah, nobody was talking about or anything like that.
Amani: And I was just lost. I was like, I don't know where to go or start.
Amani: And so I started reading about thobes and Tatreez. And then I started going online and trying to find resources. And then I started finding thobes I was like, Oh! And then I said, Well, this is a way for me to at least be closer to Tatreez then. And so that's where my thobe journey began.
Amani: and that is where I started learning the sad truth that majority of our thobes are owned by Europeans and Zionists.
Amani: and that fueled me to basically reclaim our thobes back and to stop this generational trauma theft
Amani: and that has that has been now a 10 year journey, and I've learned a lot, and I've accepted a lot. But I've also
Amani: Can I resist? Every day? Every day I'm looking every day. I'm
Amani: every day. I feel like I'm saying no to the erasure of our people.
Amani: So yeah, that's kind of how the soap journey began
Amanne: I'd love to dive a little deeper into this thobe collection. You know you said it's been 10 years in this journey. Now can you talk a little bit about the start of this journey of collecting thobes and kind of how how it's changed over the decade that you've been doing it
Amani: Yeah, so like when I 1st began looking, I was looking on like Etsy and ebay right? And
Amani: I didn't. You know. I obviously don't know a lot of the fields I was finding. At 1st I didn't even know where they were from.
Amani: You know, and and I would, you know, go and buy the soap, and then I'd bring it home, and I would start researching about it and looking at the motifs and understanding. But you know, honestly, it took me years to really understand what I was looking at, because Tatreez has so much deep meaning.
Amani: And I started later in my journey. You know, some books didn't give me the answers to what I needed. And so I started actually talking to Palestinians, and majority of them Palestinians who know about are men Palestinian men, and they have done an extraordinary job of preserving this knowledge. And so I would be talking to them online through Whatsapp. You know, Facebook asking them questions and they know everything. And
Amani: they know the reason why they know is I had realized is that Palestinian men had to know the language of the
Amani: in order to actually marry a Palestinian woman.
Amani: So that's I don't know if you guys, you guys are probably aware of that is like, Yes, is a fun, beautiful thing to do with your girls with your mom. But a big part of it is getting married
Amani: and finding a potential suitor, and it's a language. And so Palestinian men actually have to learn that language
Amani: to understand Palestinian women
Amani: and to have children, and to. And so they are very knowledgeable about Tatreez and Thobes, and they love their mothers, they love their sisters and their wives and their daughters. So sorry I get emotional when I talk about it.
Amani: but when they when they preserve this knowledge, it's because it's out of love for Palestinian women.
Amani: and that's something I learned in the journey
Lina: Yeah. And as we, we had another guest, I think it was Wafa who told us they're also very involved in the process of making a thobe.
Lina: The the men are the weavers. They're the ones providing the materials, the fabric. So yeah, people think it's completely done by women. 100%. And
Lina: technically, the embroidery, maybe perhaps
Amani: I'm just
Lina: The most part, but there's a lot more as well that goes into that
Amani: Yeah.
Lina: Do you have like any specific stories that come to mind from these conversations that have stuck with you as you've talked to several of these people
Amani: Yeah. So I connected with the Palestinian man who lives in Jenin. And he, I started doing research focusing on like the north of Palestine. I wanted to learn more about the Galili and the fallahin, because they're actually very forgotten in like the Tatreez and dope world.
Amani: So I was in it kind of
Amani: asking him questions, and we're talking. He shares his life with me and what he does, and he's very, very knowledgeable about Janine specifically, that, I think, is his specialty, because his family's from Janine.
Amani: and so he starts. He shows me some thobes. I told him. I'm from Haifa. He goes. Oh, I have a thobe that's from Haifa. Are you interested in purchasing it for your collection to show exhibits? I said. Of course I don't have. I've been looking for 10 years for a thobe from Haifa
Amani: and he says, okay, let me show it to you. So he shows it to me, and I end up purchasing it from him.
Amani: And later, when I showed the thobe at the exhibit, the Fustan.
Amani: I started asking him, Can you tell me more about where you acquired this, though who who made it? Possibly, if you know, because this also gets lost.
Amani: And he said, Yeah, her name is she lives in the Jenin Refugee camp, and her name is Miss Abdul Ghani.
Amani: and I was like, Excuse me, that is my Teta's family's last name, and I right away. I was like, what do you mean like? Is she? Is this her family's last name, or is this her? Her! She's married into a family he goes. Oh, no, her husband is her husband's is Abdulhani, and he's from Sufuria.
Amani: and I was like, Oh, wow! And so I go back into my archives of what my grandmother has taught me about our lineage, and I've like recorded all like the family tree.
Amani: And I have realized I'm like, oh, I found out that the woman who made the fustan
Amani: she made 3, 1 for each daughter, and she is originally from a village in Haifa, because that's what intrigued me like. Why is the one from the Jenin refugee camp making a thobe from Haifa? That's what 1st kind of like alerted me
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: And that's what got me digging as well as the exhibit I wanted to show, like accurate information of who made it, and so I go back into my archives, and I'm like, Oh, this is my Teta's uncle.
Amani: his wife, and she made these for her Teta's 1st cousins.
Amani: And yeah, we have located our family through the thobes, which is
Amanne: Cry.
Amani: Yeah, yeah, I cry, too, because it's like, it's like, how
Amani: I never thought a thobe would connect me back to my family, and it just amazes me.
Amani: And yeah, and I'm I don't know what other words you have to say
Amanne: Yeah.
Lina: We've got the Amanis, the Amanis get together
Amanne: Love me crying, Love me!
Amanne: My Aunt Nanny's
Amani: No, so you know I I never thought I would. You know I I own thobes that are from different other families. Never thought I would own a thobe that's from my family.
Lina: Wow!
Amani: It's
Lina: That is beautiful.
Lina: Yeah, thank you for sharing. That's an incredible story. And have you? Then I'm assuming you got in touch with the woman
Amani: So I haven't, because they have been blockading the Jenin refugee camp. He sends me photos showing the army right in front of the Jenin refugee camp
Amani: And she doesn't have a cell phone. These are these are women from 1948. You know, they're older women. They're
Amani: and it's very dangerous for him to go and try to get in contact with them. And we're waiting right now. And so that's why we haven't made an official contact yet.
Lina: And it's heartbreaking.
Lina: Then this is a new fold that you found
Amani: It was. Yeah, it's a fustan that I found last year.
Amani: Okay, yeah, last year in the summertime.
Amani: And so I have so many like thobes that I never. I don't get to catalog them until months later. So once I start cataloging it and started. It was until I want to say about December of last year.
Lina: Yeah.
Amani: And then I start discovering that about January.
Amani: right? So so much time has gone by. And yeah, they were. They are still the Israelis are. Army is still holding down Jenin Refugee Camp.
Amani: It's very dangerous, because it's it's kind of like, I'm afraid, for my family. That is there like, what's going to happen to them
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: And I, I worry like they're gonna end up being killed. And I don't ever get to connect with them.
Amani: Yeah.
Amanne: Inshallah, you get to connect with her and hear her story, so you can carry it on and you'll have to share it with us, because that is so like that's so amazing that somehow
Amanne: it brought you were brought back to the stove into your family
Amani: Like.
Amanne: Through seas that's really really cool and really special
Amani: Yeah.
Amanne: I would also love to hear about some of the challenges that you faced in this journey of collecting thobes. You know. I'm sure there are many you obviously alluded to one with just now, you know, dealing with people living in occupied territories in occupied Palestine. But can you share a little bit more about those challenges you face
Amani: Yeah, there are quite a lot of challenges when you, when collecting and preserving soaps and rescuing them.
Amani: I think the biggest challenge is definitely speaking with Israelis and Zionists and Europeans that have our cultural regalia.
Amani: And
Amani: that is always something that I have learned over the years to just be very minimal. How do I say? And like not give too much information about myself? I don't want them knowing I'm Palestinian.
Amani: and I have to be very strategic when dealing with those sellers.
Amani: and so it can be very infuriating, because they'll label our thrones as Israeli.
Amani: or they'll label them as Bohemian, something exotic, very Orientalist. So I document all that. I take screenshots of all these sellers that are selling our thobes and mislabeling them, and pretty much committing cultural appropriation.
Amani: It's very racist. And
Amani: yeah, I that's a big challenge for me. But I have learned how to navigate it. Very well. I don't let it get to me anymore. But that took many years. I'm just very like I need to protect and rescue this, though. And I just put my poker face on and just move forward.
Amani: There are also a lot of times, especially Post October 7, th where I'm was interviewed with I think it was
Amani: ABC, 10 news, I believe I'm forgetting. But I had basically said like, made like a call to action. Like, if you own a thobe.
Amani: you need to return it back to the community that it's from. And so I've had several white collectors. European collectors contact me and donate those to me
Amanne: Really, nice, yeah.
Amani: So that's has been
Amani: very. How do you say I'm I'm happy that people are responding to that call of actually taking it seriously.
Amani: I've had white collectors give me back jewelry and Thobe. So
Amani: I'm happy that people are listening and really taking it seriously, that they should not be owning Palestinian cultural regalia.
Amani: It's it's not theirs. They should be returned back to our people. And
Amani: so yeah, another challenge is
Amani: you know, working with Palestinians in occupied Palestine in the west bank.
Amani: We have a lot of Philip Sellers in the west bank, and I feel very bad because
Amani: there's a mixture of guilt that they feel
Amani: where they they love. You know they obviously are Palestinian, and they don't want to part with these thobes, but they are forced to.
Amani: and they are. When you live under occupation you have. You don't have much options for making a living for your family, and so they're being forced to sell their thobes, unfortunately. And I I've
Amani: I have rather they sell the thobes to us
Amani: than them being because they end up selling them to Europeans. That's that's why, actually, in my
Amani: 10 years of collecting the when I get the thobes back like the really old thobes pre 1948. It's because they were sold to Europeans through the Jerusalem Souks
Amani: You know.
Amani: So
Amani: unfortunately, Palestinians have been forced to sell our clothing in order to make money in order to support their families and and to stay on the land. So I end up buying thobes from them
Amani: so that they can stay on the line, and the Philip stays with us.
Amani: and I tell them one day we'll return back to Philistine. I'll bring the thobes back.
Amani: So
Amani: I've had Palestinians. Tell me like I'm so happy that you have the thobe, and it's with you, and like, when we return we'll return with all the thobes and
Amani: inshallah! One day they'll be in a museum in Philistine when Philistine is free, you know and they tell me like it's better that the thobes are with you than in the west bank, because when they come into our homes they raid our homes. They steal the thobes from us.
Amani: or they bombed the schools that we stored them at.
Amani: He showed me photos. A few Palestinian men have showed me photos like we used to own this thobe, and it's gone when the Israelis stormed the building or when they bombed the school in the west bank. The thobe is incinerated, and they're like it's not safe here.
Amani: you know.
Amani: So that is another reality that's happening in the west bank.
Amani: And then we have also Palestinians who are thobe Sellers, who
Amani: who make a lot of money off selling thopes to Westerners. I'm sure you guys are aware of that.
Amani: and they'd have no care about it. That's
Amani: it's that's another reality that's happening. It's very interesting. I I
Amani: I try, and I try to see that you know living under occupation is brutal and very ugly. Things are going to come out of it.
Amani: And
Amani: I think, are the best hope we can have is to educate each other and help each other in preserving our culture. And
Amani: It's a terrible thing to live under apartheid and occupation. That's what's gonna come out of it.
Amanne: What advice do you have for Palestinians, you know, you know, especially Palestinians living in diaspora like us, who maybe are coming across, because I've I've met other people who come across
Amanne: these quote unquote Bohemian dresses. Also I've seen them labeled as Bedouin dresses, and somebody wants to kind of like rescue this Thobe. You know a Palestinian wants to rescue it like, what advice do you have for somebody who is not really experienced in that world, but wants to do something
Amani: A lot of my, I guess. My, by the way, I actually teach girls how to do this and how to do it smartly.
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: Because I in my 10 years of collecting I you know I'd see the thobes sell, and I can't buy them all. I don't have the finances. I don't have the time. It takes a lot of time
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: You have to have some income, it can be expensive. So and that's a privilege, you know. Again, I'm coming from a place of privilege, living in Diaspora, where I have a job where I'm not living under occupation
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: So
Amani: yeah. I teach a handful of girls right now on how to how to get them, how to id them, how to buy them, what price point that they should buy? And when I say that I'm talking about buying from Zionists and Europeans
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: When we're talking about buying from Palestinians in the west bank, there should not be any kind of haggling happening
Amani: You should buy it at the price that they want it at
Amanne: Agreed.
Amani: Yeah, that's you know, that's something that should not be.
Amani: because you need to see it as this form of Sadaqah. In a way. That's how I see it. I've bought from Palestinians in the west bank that I know. That's a very high price point, but I will buy it at that price point. Because I think about that money is going to be going to feeding their families, putting their kids through school and and providing some kind of economic stability for them.
Amani: What I do is I actually will haggle the hell out of Zionists and Europeans, and that's how I make it work out for me.
Amani: so that I'm not breaking the bank in that way.
Amani: and I will also tell. Like Europeans like, Hey, I'm Palestinian. I do exhibits. You have a thobe that's more recently.
Amani: and I'll be like, can you please donate this, though.
Amani: or can you give it to me at a price point like, and I will negotiate the price
Amani: And they've been more willing to do so now into today's climate than they were 5 years ago.
Amani: So yeah.
Amanne: That's really good to hear
Lina: Can you? Can you tell us a little bit about the exhibits that you host
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: Yeah. So I've done a few. Our 1st one was in San Diego, at the house of Palestine, and that was really the earth shaking moment where, you know, I had collected all these thobes, but I had never presented them to the public
Amani: but when I had shown them it was post night post, October 7, th
Amani: and I remember people coming to the table, and we had them on mannequins.
Amani: and I just remember, like Palestinian men and women just weeping.
Amani: crying, and like putting their fingers over the threads. And like it was, there was so sorrow because
Amani: our people made such beautiful things. And it's because Philistine was so beautiful. It's a reflection of the land
Amani: and the a lot of them. The men were like grieving over their mothers.
Amani: You know I had men telling me my mom used to wear this
Amanne: And just grief.
Amani: I saw a woman just mesmerized by the fact that we used to make such beautiful things
Amanne: Oh!
Amani: And now our thobes are majority machine made.
Amani: You know, they're made from plastic. They're made from computers.
Amani: And that was the the earth, shaking moment where I said, You know, I need to actually start doing more exhibits doing more education.
Amani: And
Amani: that's kind of how Tantura was born. And yeah, we do the we do exhibits, and we also work with co-ops in Philistine, and we work with weavers from Gaza, who are displaced in Cairo, the Majdalawi weavers
Amani: And yeah, we work with women in the west bank. And we give them projects and we give them. We plan out, how do you say? Like designs and clothing? For, like modern day?
Amani: how do you say where? But keeping intact our traditional motifs and our and our the traditions of and making sure it's handmade
Amani: with high quality fabrics.
Amani: And I really feel like machine made really strips us of our culture. And I and our identity. I know that we grew up, you know, in an era where we were wearing machine made thobes. You know, some. I have thobes that are machine made from when I was a teenager.
Amani: You know that my dad brought over to me when from Jordan.
Amani: But I feel like we need to start talking about the fact that we need to go back to handmade and supporting women-led co-ops. We're basically robbing those women of work
Amani: We are. We're robbing them of the work. We're robbing them of the opportunity to stay in their lands, to provide for their families and
Amani: for their kids. I have women who'd message me, and they're like, Thank you so much for letting me giving me the statistics to this work to do because I was able to pay for my child's doctor appointment. I'm able to buy them their book supplies.
Amani: and we need to really shift our gears to supporting our economy in the west bank
Amani: they have been. The West Bank's economy has been trampled by globalization, colonialism and by machine made the, for example, used to be all factories. They've all shut down because they can't compete with Chinese market
Amani: and pricing, and we need to be as Palestinians turning away from that market and focusing on our people and what they need. And that is providing jobs.
Amani: Yeah, that's kind of my message about
Amani: ditching machine made. And let's move into
Amani: supporting women-led co-ops and supporting weavers
Amanne: Yeah.
Lina: Yeah, so what about your own? Till today's practice? Have you
Amani: Evening.
Lina: Inspired. Yeah, have you been inspired to make your own Thope?
Amani: I I am. That's my dream is.
Amani: And one day, to make my own Thobe, I've attended a few Tatreez workshops, and it is very difficult
Amani: where
Amanne: There, girl, when I back up here to the bed.
Amanne: I don't. I already have plans for you. Don't you worry
Amani: I will!
Amanne: Me and your sister will work on you.
Amani: I will, I will love that.
Amani: I think that I got so in. How do you say? Consumed into this aspect
Amanne: Yeah.
Amani: And it's taken me away from the actual main goal that started, which was.
Amani: And, Inshallah! I hope one day that I can sit down, and with other Palestinian women, and and learn how to do Therese. That's the dream
Lina: We're on it. We're on
Amanne: Yeah, we Maddie, with an E will get you. Yeah, we'll take care
Amanne: that you just come back up to the bay, and I I got you, girl?
Amanne: so I love what you're doing with these exhibits. I love what you're doing with like the collecting, and even like to teach others to collect, because I think it's very real what you're saying like, I know some other people. We know, some of the same people who like also do some collecting as well. And exactly what you're saying. It is time consuming. It is expensive for people, so it's not necessarily
Amanne: something that is or should be gate kept within the community. So love that you're doing all of that stuff. If somebody wanted to
Amanne: have an exhibit locally and wanted to showcase these like beautiful athwab like. Is that something that you're going to be doing more with Tantura like? How could somebody collaborate with you on that
Amani: Oh, yeah, definitely, I already have, like a group of women who have been collecting. And they have a beautiful collection. I said, Listen, we're gonna have an exhibit. Would you like to put my collection with yours and with other women? And
Amani: they're 100 down. And so it's definitely a community effort to make this happen. And I'm so happy because when I started this journey I felt very alone. And now I have all these women who are
Amani: like ready to learn, ready to commit themselves to this work, ready to preserving and protecting our culture. And yeah, I'm super excited. And in a way. If if you, if you do have thoughts and would like to collaborate and would love to be a part of an exhibit one day.
Amani: you can contact me through Instagram. You can go to tantura.co. You can talk. You can email me, we can put all that in this video. But yeah, it's very easy to get a hold of, and if you have any questions, if you need help, if you
Amani: want some knowledge or tips like you can always contact me, and I will help you.
Amani: Yeah.
Lina: Amazing. Thank you so much, Imani. This has been such a an emotional conversation
Lina: for all of us involved. And I mean, it's it's important. It's an important conversation. Thank you for sharing such intimate
Lina: to worry.
Lina: And
Lina: because, like, really like, it's, it's hard to explain to someone in one sentence, you know, like, Oh, this means something or like means something, but it's it's but they carry these stories. And and I, that's the part that really is essential in sharing and getting across, because I don't think even us as Palestinians. I don't think Palestinians understand that
Amanne: That
Lina: These stories are held by the thread that makes up the embroidery on these dresses, and I think this this particular conversation hopefully, can be an easy way for anyone to have a relationship with
Amani: Necessarily
Lina: Have to be the one
Lina: stitching. You can just have a connection through these stories, and through that you have an appreciation for Tatreez. You start to value Tatreez more, and you start to think a little bit when you either purchase something that has Tatreez or the type of quality that you end up going for or just learning about the person who's making the product.
Lina: You know, all of that is so critical. And I think, like this type of conversation was was really vital, and in sharing that more broadly. So, you know, just thank you for for that.
Amani: Of course. Yeah, thank you guys for listening and crying with me and feeling with me. You know. I think Palestinians have a hard time telling their stories, because
Amani: Like you saw. We're all crying together. It's it's difficult. We're talking about the pain of many, many of our ancestors, and it's all inside of us.
Amani: and you know, when I'm crying, it's not only me crying, that's my theta crying, that's my theta feeling sad. That's my great grandmother feeling sad
Amani: and
Amani: again. You're right. You don't have to actually know how Tatreez, to to feel connected or feel the importance of Tatreez or love Tatreez. I think I'll share with you guys my 1st time wearing a thobe I was I was 5 years old
Amani: and it was, for, like our cultural day at our school, and I went to some school, so my family friend had let me borrow Al Beer Maleka Thobe, and I she had put it on me, and I remember still to this day, like the weight.
Amani: how heavy it was on me, how intricately embroidered it was! I remember putting my hands over the soap, and I felt like I was a queen, and I didn't even know that this thobe met Queen. I didn't understand. I didn't know that until I got older, I said, Oh, I'm wearing a malloc.
Amani: you know, but that thobe made me feel like a queen. I felt like I was the Princess of Philistine when I was wearing it. And yeah, those those feelings when you wear a thobe, never leave you. There's I don't think there's anything in this world that I have worn that has made me feel that way.
Amani: There's nothing
Amani: I don't care if you come to me with designer from Italy. No, a thobe, a thobe, or even a tuxeda that I'm wearing here. There's nothing like it that will make you feel that way, and it's because it's made with love
Lina: Yeah.
Amanne: Yeah, beautifully, beautifully said, okay. Before we let you go, we have to ask, what is a major life lesson that you have gained from Tatreez
Amani: Patience.
Amani: I think patience and yeah, I think it has been patience because it, even though I'm not doing
Amani: it, takes a lot of patience for me, for the work that I do do in terms of collecting in terms of getting information, learning in terms of speaking to Sellers. It requires an immense amount of patience. So I've learned patience through Tatreez in a different avenue
Lina: Totally. Totally.
Lina: Thank you so much, Amani. One more time for the listeners. Where can they find you? Get in touch all the places
Amani: Yeah, you guys can contact me through Tantura.co on Instagram. And we also have Tantura.co website. And I'll also, I'll have Amani put my email. And those are the best ways to contact me via social media. And also our website
Lina: Amazing. Thank you so much, Amani. We will be in touch, and I know Amani with an E will be in touch more aggressively as well
Amanne: Always.
Lina: Thank you.
Amani: Thank you for having me
Lina: You know. So when I think about a thwab and like why, it's so important to me to make a thwab, it's it's literally to like. I say this all over my website, right? This is my branding. Whatever is like. You embed yourself in the thwab right
Amanne: Yeah.
Lina: And I feel like for me. A lot of it has been more how to embed in a thobe as opposed to taking or understanding what was embedded in a thobe. And so this was a really interesting way to think about through the stories that Amani shared. And that's literally why we do what we're doing.
Amanne: Yeah.
Lina: This is why it matters is because it's not just embroidery. It's not just a fold. It's a story they're like, literally. It's many, many stories of all these people. Anyways, yeah, I'm just like these stories are so powerful
Amanne: Yeah, I also think it's a.
Amanne: It's a good glimpse at a different side of things for people who maybe
Amanne: maybe like actually, physically, stitching isn't something that you connect with, I mean, obviously, Lena. And I want you to connect with that. And we want you to be physically stitching. But like that's not for everyone that's totally okay.
Amanne: and you can still be connected to the cities and still be connected to Palestine and still be connected to these stories from these Palestinian women, even just through like, whether it's collecting or admiring and learning and appreciating the beautiful pieces that they create and being able to learn from that. So it was just really cool to hear that perspective from Amani. 2 Amanis are better than one
Lina: How does it so like to mention like name? Someone else who's not you
Amanne: Oh, girl, I know so many Amannes. By the way, like literally in college, there was another Amani and we're like I literally saw her in prayer. She has like super beautiful, curly, curly, curly ringlets, and so I always used to. My hair is wavy, but I always used to wear it straight and like this is back in the day, like, I used to flat iron it
Amanne: house. Right? Yeah.
Amanne: So I was known as straight hair and manny, and she was known as curly hair and manny. So yeah, I'm used to other manis. I love a manis. We're the best I actually have not met any mani. I don't like click with
Amanne: but that's not a challenge. Bts,
Amanne: like I want to click with everybody I meet. But
Lina: I love it.
Amanne: Yeah, no, it was really, honestly, I really appreciated the stories that she told and how open she was with her own family's stories. It was like so beautiful. We're both cry at all the fields. But I really appreciate that kind of stuff, because, you know, it is something that I think, is helpful, you know, even when she was telling the story about her grandmother talking about the neck boat, while, like rolling
Amanne: clearly, as she said, like her grandma, had already processed that, and clearly this, like
Amanne: ritual, if you will, of making diwali and telling the story, was something that resonated with the family something that the family did right, but also being able to clearly being able to tell that story over and over again, is a part of what helped her process it and helped her move on from it. So I really appreciated Imani sharing that.
Amanne: I think that's like a beautiful.
Amanne: I guess, bittersweet, because obviously her grandmother's telling her this like horrible, these horrible stories of what happened to their family, but kind of like a beautiful memory of how to take those stories, those bad stories, and how to turn that into a beautiful memory. So all of it had me in my fields. I loved every minute of it. It was a really beautiful conversation. And I'm sure we could have continued to talk to her and
Amanne: girl when we when her and I meet up, that's all we're gonna do
Lina: Yeah.
Amanne: And I'm going to try to stitch
Lina: Yes, yes, yeah. Bring her into the bring her into the fold to the tribe
Amanne: Yes, girl, I will bring her into the cold
Amanne: all right. Well, thank you so much for listening to Tatreez Talk. We want to hear from you about your Tatreez journey. Share your stories with us at Tatreeztalk@gmail.com, and we might have you on an upcoming episode. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. On your favorite listening platform, and be sure to leave us a 5 star review. You can follow me @minamanne and Lina @linasthobe. And of course you can follow the pod @tatreeztalk. We'll talk to you soon.
