Stitching Survival: Palestinian Embroidery as Ontological Resistance and Feminist Praxis
This course explores Palestinian embroidery (tatreez) as a living cultural practice, a visual language, and a form of ontological and feminist resistance. Moving beyond craft-based readings, the course situates tatreez within broader historical, political, and decolonial frameworks, examining how stitched motifs encode memory, identity, gendered labour, and survival under conditions of displacement and colonial violence.
Drawing on art history, visual culture, feminist theory, and contemporary artistic practice, the course traces tatreez from its historical and pre-colonial roots through to its re-emergence in nationalist narratives, women’s resistance movements, and contemporary Palestinian art. Particular attention is given to how women artists reinterpret embroidery today, shifting it from intangible heritage into a critical feminist praxis.
The course is designed for participants with an interest in Arab art, visual culture, feminist studies, and decolonial practices, and requires no prior knowledge of embroidery.
Each live, online session will be structured as an illustrated presentation using slides, images, and case studies, with questions, comments, and short discussions woven throughout the session rather than held only at the end. This approach encourages ongoing engagement and allows participants to reflect and respond as ideas are introduced.
The session will move between short presentation sections and moments of dialogue, creating a supportive and interactive learning environment while maintaining a clear structure and flow.
Meet Your Tutor
May Qadoura is a Jordanian Palestinian multidisciplinary visual artist working across installation, sculpture, painting, and mixed media. Her practice explores themes of memory, resilience, identity, and collective experience, with a particular focus on women’s lived realities and the politics of representation.
Drawing on a wide range of materials, including textiles, handmade paper, found objects, and organic and recycled matter, Qadoura creates layered works that respond to displacement, cultural inheritance, and humanitarian struggle. Elements of traditional craft, including embroidery, appear within her practice as conceptual and material references rather than purely decorative forms, reworked through contemporary artistic frameworks.
She holds a BA in Pharmacy, a BA in Visual Arts (Painting), and an MA in Fine Art from the University of Brighton (UK). Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at The Regency Town House Gallery, Darat al Funun, Al Markhiya Gallery, and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.
Course Overview
All classes will be held through Zoom, accessed via the Teachable platform. Classes will be recorded and available to watch back for one month after. Classes will be held weekly from 6pm London time and last between 90 mins and 2 hours each week.
Week 1 | Thursday 26 March
Tatreez as Cultural Tapestry and Ontological Act
This opening session introduces Palestinian embroidery as a deeply rooted cultural practice shaped by land, history, and everyday life. It offers a historical overview of tatreez, including references to pre-colonial and Canaanite traditions, and explores how embroidery developed within rural communities.
Using examples of historic dresses from different regions, the session traces the origins of tatreez and its close connection to farmers and village women, who developed and refined embroidery as part of daily life. Tatreez is approached as a carrier of place, lineage, and embodied knowledge, and as a practice through which women expressed belonging, survival, and continuity across generations.
This foundational understanding sets the ground for the following sessions, which examine tatreez as a visual language, a form of resistance, and a contemporary feminist artistic practice.
Week 2 | Thursday 2 April | Tatreez as Visual Language and Semiotic System
This session explores tatreez as a rich visual language through which stories, identities, and social meanings are communicated. We look closely at motifs, patterns, colours, and regional variations, and how these elements function as a form of coded expression passed down through generations.
The session also considers embroidery in relation to gendered labour and domestic space, examining how women have used stitch as a way to narrate personal and collective histories. Through examples of dress and ornamentation, participants are introduced to the semiotics of embroidery and how meaning is constructed, read, and transformed over time.
Week 3 | Thursday 9 April | Tatreez as Visual Language and Semiotic System
This session looks at how tatreez functions as a powerful form of women’s resistance within Palestinian history and culture. We explore embroidery not only as decoration, but as a political and social practice through which women express memory, identity, and survival.
Topics include how embroidery has been used in feminist and resistance movements, how women’s bodies and clothing become sites of political meaning, and how stitched garments, particularly the Intifada dresses, operate within nationalist narratives. The session also introduces decolonial and feminist perspectives, showing how tatreez moves from cultural heritage into an active form of feminist practice.
Week 4 | Thursday 16 April | Contemporary Palestinian Women Artists
This session explores how contemporary Palestinian women artists reinterpret embroidery and textile practices within contemporary art, shifting tatreez from intangible heritage to feminist and conceptual praxis. The discussion considers women both as symbols and active agents within nationalist and artistic narratives.
Selected case studies include:
•Mona Hatoum, Embroidery, and textile references as spatial and conceptual encounters.
•Zain Masri, Digital archives, and collective memory.
•Beesan Arafat, Reworking bridal attire and domestic textiles.
•Buthina Abu Milhem, Threads as cultural reclamation.
•Shereen Quttaineh, Tatreez as ecological and material witness.
Week 5 | Thursday 23 April | Tatreez Workshop: Stitching Memory onto Paper
•Participants stitch simplified tatreez motifs onto paper or archival images from historic Palestine
•Focus on meaning, memory, and reinterpretation rather than technical mastery
•Participants produce a small, finished artwork
This optional practical workshop is delivered as a standalone closing session, designed to gently translate theory into practice in an accessible and reflective way. Participants will receive a PDF pack in advance, including selected images, templates, and simple instructions, along with a short and manageable materials list.
Inspired by her artistic practice, Mai will guide participants to stitch simplified tatreez motifs onto paper or archival images from historic Palestine. The class will focus on meannig, memory and reinterpretation over technical mastery and participants will produce a small, finished artwork by the end of the session.
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