Publications
Book Chapters, Magazine Essays & Journal Articles
“Tatreez as Ceremony: An Ethos for Preserving Palestinian Embroidery in the Diaspora,” in Narrative Threads: Palestinian Embroidery in Contemporary Art (October 21, 2025). Edited by Joanna Barakat. Saqi Books.
“The Timelessness of Tatreez: Stitched Stories of Palestinian Maker's Once Known,” in On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival (October 21, 2025). Exhibition catalogue, Art Institute of Chicago. Edited by L. Vinebaum. Yale University Press.
“Unravelling Tatreez: Contemporary Inscriptions of Belonging, Protection, and the Sacred in Palestine Embroidery” in Sila: All That’s Left to You (forthcoming). Exhibition catalogue, Maraya Art Centre. Curated and edited by Cima Azzam (Maraya Art Centre) and Noor Suhail (1971 - Design Space) in collaboration with Rula Alami, Founder of Sila exhibitions.
“A Garden of Palestinian Dresses,” in Threads of Time: A Cultural Journey (forthcoming, November 25, 2025). Edited by Daniel Brewster and Lyssa Stapleton. Hali Publications Limited.
“The Thobe as Biblical Fantasy: The Legacy of Orientalism in Palestinian Dress Collections,” in Fashion’s Missing Masses: The Representation of Marginalized Populations in Collections and Exhibitions of Dress (forthcoming). Edited by Kenna Libes. Vernon Press.
“The Origins and Tradition of Palestinian Embroidery,” in Encyclopedia of World Textiles, Vol. 5 (forthcoming). Edited by Vandana Bhandari and Alicia Decker. Bloomsbury Publishing.
“The Thobe as a Portrait: Inheritance and Rematriation in the Tatreez Institute’s Dress Collection,” in Feminist Studies Journal (forthcoming).
“Archiving the Thobe: An Ethical Approach to Palestinian Dress in Museum Collections and Visual Archives,” in Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice (forthcoming). Edited by Rajesh Kumar.
“Tatreez Pattern Books & the Paper Lives of Palestinian Embroidery Designs,” in Hand Papermaking Magazine (forthcoming). Edited by Nisa Ari.
Online Publications
Tatreez in Time: The memory, meaning, and makers of Palestinian embroidery, July 26, 2024. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Perspectives: New York, New York.
[Read Online] [Download PDF] [Review]Without life, there is no tatreez, July 31, 2025. Garland Magazine, Australia.
[Read Online]Tatreez Illuminations: GLISTEN in Palestinian Embroidery & Dress History, April 7, 2025. National Gallery of Singapore: Singapore.
[Read Online] [Download PDF]Tatreez Star Motifs: Reclaiming Indigenous Cultural Knowledge Online through Community Dialogue, December 17, 2024. Institute for Palestine Studies: Washington, DC.
[Read Online] [Download PDF]Books About Palestinian Embroidery, November 18, 2024. Afikra: Daftar Journal: Brooklyn, New York.
[Read Online] [Download PDF]Reclaiming Palestinian Beauty, One Wall Label at a Time, November 3, 2024. Hyperallergic: New York, New York.
[Read Online] [Download PDF]
The Tatreez Institute’s Blog
Since 2015, Wafa has written TATREEZING, a blog dedicated to Palestinian embroidery and dress. What began as a space to document the fieldwork, oral histories, and research that shaped her seminal book, Tatreez & Tea, with updates for the arts organizations supporting the project (some of which remain archived), has since grown into a platform for broader art historical engagement. Today, her writing reflects the interdisciplinary nature of her work, engaging in Palestinian artworks, textiles, dress, and material culture, gathering critical reflections that attend to Palestinian lived experience.
Print Publications
TATREEZ COMPANION: Palestinian Embroidery Study Booklet (Second Edition), The Tatreez Institute: Washington, DC
A 65-page full color companion booklet that serves as a supplement to any teacher and student of Palestinian embroidery (tatreez) in the diaspora. Includes a statement about cultural appropriation, three methodologies of traditional cross-stitch, over 50 tatreez patterns (please review list of patterns before purchasing), as well as an embroidered wall hanging found under the rubble of Gaza in 2023.
TATREEZ BEAUTY: A Coloring Book, The Tatreez Institute: Washington, DC
An 84-page black and white coloring book for kids and adults beginning to learn about the beauty of Palestinian embroidery and dressmaking traditions. Includes 34 coloring pages with blank pages in between, historic images of Palestinian children wearing traditional dress, educational information about traditional garments, a word search, reading list and true short story about the author learning tatreez at a young age.
2023
THOBNA: Reclaiming Palestinian Dresses in the Diaspora, The Tatreez Institute: Washington, DC
192 full color pages that cultivates a reclamation process for rescuing Palestinian dress in the diaspora, teaching the traditional stitching techniques in tatreez (with diagrams and color palettes) through 20 pages of instructions, includes a 47 page pattern library of exclusively Intifada patterns, a detailed analysis of contemporary Palestinian dress styles after 1948, the stories of 10 rescued Palestinian dresses that formed the basis of the the Tatreez Institute collection, a glossary of dress history terms in English and Arabic, a history that places the possible origination of Palestinian embroidery in world history with abundant and inclusive citations that leverage previously-existing peer-reviewed research. Instrumental in fashion history and costume study research in a university setting, as well as aspiring makers of Palestinian embroidery.
2018
Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora, Second Edition, Edited by Safa Ghnaim. The Tatreez Institute: Brooklyn, New York.
Co-authored with Wafa’s mother, award-winning Palestinian embroidery artist Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, Tatreez & Tea is a 448 page full color book that serves as an oral history documentation and biography of a Palestinian family in the diaspora preserving traditional embroidery techniques and dressmaking traditions. The book uses the embroidered dresses created by Wafa’s mother to tell the stories of their creation, the historic meanings of the patterns as passed on in the Abbasi family from Safad, and the new stories they capture in Feryal’s process of making in the diaspora. Each embroidery created by Feryal includes the cross-stitch patterns passed on to Wafa and her sisters, the important lessons that tatreez teaches in daily life, as well as tea recipes and anecdotes that helped Wafa and her family recreate the historic “stitching circle” that is paramount to preserving the culture of tatreez. Tatreez & Tea is more than just a book about patterns, tea, coffee and embroidery techniques preserved in the diaspora—it preserves and protects tatreez as an indigenous ceremony enlightened by relationships and storytelling.
No longer available in e-book format, originally released in 2016
Palestine Book Awards Nominee
Other Publications
These are publications where the scholar has cited Wafa, her mother, Tatreez & Tea, or the Tatreez Institute. Please email wafa@tatreezandtea.com if you would like your publication added to the list.
Sheets, Kristine. 2024. Embroidered Memories: Postmemorial Nostalgia in Palestinian Tatreez. Emotions and Society. https://doi.org/10.1332/26316897Y2024D000000038.
Ortega, Jacob. 2022. Stitching Resistance: Palestinian Costume as a Medium for Cultural Preservation. Master’s thesis, University of New Mexico.