Workshop for Arabian Handicrafts
Here she is, the daughter af the goddess ANAT. With her blessed hands she spins, weaves, and embroideres the material which not only protects her body but protects her soul from all evil. Her body is a temple and her dress the altar cloth. United deeply with nature, which embraces her, she weaves red and green stripes in her dark blue linen heaven and hell confession of her devotion to the balence of nature. She adorns her dress a million fold with the cross, symbol of the beginning where the good crosses the evil and life is created. And with every stitch of her blessed hand she celebrates her prayer. She creates a work of art, balanced, and with deep sensuality and mystical meaning, a dress and an amulet. This is the heritage of ANAT: A universe and at the same time a seed. She puts it into our hands so that we protect and tend it. We possess it when we adopt it and use it. A women´s art which bears witness to the complex personage of the daughters of ANAT the Arab women.
The art of embroidery was passed down from generation to generation and every village developed ist own specific way to embroider the main patterns. We can identify from the way the patterns are embroidered where the dress comes from. In the northern areas Syria, Lebanon and Galilee the patterns reflect the ´modern` ideology of patriarchal gods. The further south and east you go in Palestine an Jordan you will find the older matriarchal patterns. Also the colors differ from region to region depending on the means of dying available in nature. In the desert and mountainous areas, henna and pomegranates were used to produce a brownish orange-red. In the coastal areas a snail was used to dye a dark pink or purple.
The patterns of Arabic embroidery were created thousands of years ago and reflect the old ideologies from the time before the modern world religions.
The ear of corn is the symbol of the fertility of the goddess ANAT in the northern and eastern regions called Ashtar.
The moon is the image of the goddess, the staircase is embroidered in memory of the monthly fight of the goddess to rescue her hero Baal from the underworld, and the triangle symbolizes the trinity of the goddess and the balance of heaven and earth.
The sun, the feathers, and the cypress-tree are symbols of ANAT´s hero Baal.
The main colors of the Arabic embroidery are red, black and white the three colors symbolizing the three phases of the goddess. White is the color of the young goddess, the amazon. The color symbolizes purity and the ability to fight against evil. Red is the color of the goddess in her second phase as a mature woman and symbolizes love and fertitlity. Black is the color of wisdom and symbolizes the old wise goddess, the oracle.
The Arab dresses are mainly embroidered in red on white or black material. Other colors are added only austerely. All of the colors have a special meaning, and are believed to interact with parts of the body, giving you health. For the Bedouins blue is an additional main color, next to red, black and white. The Arab people continue to believe that the color blue guards against the evil eye.
Through thousands of years there were only few changes in the way of life of the Bedouins and peasants in this area and the traditions were inherited from generation to generation with very little change. In this century, however, our lifestyle has changed dramatically. The artist in us was not able to keep up with these changes and we got lost. We have to build bridges between our modern life and the heritage of the past so that we can regain our traditions and make them again part of our everyday life. This rich heritage should not find it´s final resting-place in a museum, that graveyard of culture. We should use it, develop and practice it, so that in future it can continue to enrich our everyday life.
We want to fight the poverty of modern-day slums, with their two-fold paucity: a lack of resources as well as a lack of culture, traditions, social bindings, roots and hope for the future. Our cultural heritage helps us to restore our self-confidence and defend our national identitiy. At the same time, by practicing and developing our traditions and showing them to the world, we might regain some friends for our people. A people which have created a cultural treasure for mankind and which do not deserve the bad image they have in the western world.
For thousands of years women in this area have embroidered. Millions of women through hundereds of generations have created a heritage of untold value, not only for the Arab people, but for all mankind.
Esthetically balanced, full of mythological mystery, a mirror of history and outlook on life. Every woman used to embroider for herself or for her sister or daughter. Her dress was always a very individual amulet, an expression of herself and her emotional requirements. As such each dress is a piece of art. An amulet written in the poetic language of patterns and colors, a silent and sensible language which we begin to understand when we open our minds and when we are ready to learn from generations which have accumulated the wisdom of history, a culmination of oriental culture.
The ANAT workshop was founded in 1988 in the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk. The aim of the workchop was to provide employment to women refugees.
The possibility to work is for most women the first step to a greater independence. We support this objective and try to help by teaching the old embroidery techniques, sewing, macramé and tassel making.
A short education that is tailored to their abilities is very important, especially for mothers, as it leads to financial benefits very quickly. In addition it increases their self-esteem end independence from husband and family.
