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Some of Abir Barakats earliest childhood memories are of her fathers fascination with tatreez, a traditional Palestinian embroidery involving hand-stitching patterns and motifs on clothing, scarves, bedspreads, and pillows. Her father would collect thobestatreez-embroidered loose-fitting dresses worn by Palestinian women, ultimately amassing an extensive collection of unique, traditional tatreez pieces crafted decades ago by women in Palestine. My memory is how passionate he was about it and how he would tell us different stories about (tatreez), says Barakat. He would acquire these old Palestinian dresses [some of which] are museum pieces, honestly, because they can no longer be found. After nearly 15 years of working in various marketing roles, Barakat decided to combine her experience with her passion for tatreez and begin preserving historical tatreez pieces. It was such a rich history and a rich heritage that it had to be repurposed, she says, adding that a lot of these villages that the embroidery comes from no longer exist. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jeel Design (@jeeldesign) Thats why she started Jeel, which means eneration in Arabica name she chose because it reflects her goal of preserving a rich heritage and passing it down to future generations. Since the brands launch in 2014, it has grown into a profitable business selling a range of vibrant tatreez embroidery, amassing more than 18,000 Instagram followers. With the United Nations Cultural agency warning that tatreez is at risk of disappearing from collective memory, brands like Jeel and others are focused on preserving Palestinian heritage. [Photo: Suzy Tamimi] Tatreez and the fabric of Palestinian identity Historically, tatreez also formed a Palestinians cultural identity as the embroidery weaves the origins and history of Palestinians into its diverse patterns and colors. They would even know the social status of a person depending on what she is wearing, Barakat says. The headpieces in the Palestinian costumes would reflect if that person is rich or not. Just like tatreez created a strong identity for Palestinian people decades ago, Barakat started Jeel hoping the craft would do the same for her. Despite growing up in Jerusalem as a Palestinian Muslim, she says she often grappled with understanding her identity, feeling that it was constantly under threat. Every Palestinian would tell you there is always a piece of us that feels we need to preserve [our heritage] because we feel endangered at every point of our life, Barakat says. We feel always jeopardized to make sure we say we exist because at every level of our existence, we are being challenged about being Palestinian. [Photo: Suzy Tamimi] This pressing need to preserve Palestinian identity also motivated Suzy Adnan Tamimi, a New York-based Palestinian designer, to begin making tatreez designs of her own in 2014. Two years into the project, Tamimi got a unique opportunity which she defines as her “launchpad”: In 2016, the United Nations invited her to design a contemporary interpretation of a traditional Palestinian dress for an exhibition aimed at preserving Palestinian identity. She created a modern-day gown from tatreez scraps she bought from Hanan Munayyera renowned curator and collector of tatreez embroidery. The gown was displayed at the United Nations Headquarters for a month. Her experience at the United Nations deepened her passion for reinventing tatreez, exploring ways to modernize the craft and bringing Palestinian embroidery to a more global audience. Today, Tamimis tatreez brand boasts more than 29,000 followers on Instagram. She works with Palestinian women in refugee camps in the West bank city of Jenin to repurpose tatreez embroidery, integrating it with modern designs. Her modern take on tatreez has enabled her brand to attract a younger demographic. I started coming up with ideas that were very innovative and new and fresh, like (tatreez embroidered) sneakers or guitar straps or jumpsuits, sweatsuits, bucket hats. So, kind of like an urban sportswear vibe, says Tamimi. Growing awareness amid crisis As Israel’s assault on Gaza has worn on, both Barakat and Tamimi have seen growth in their followersleading to mixed feelings about the growth of tatreezs visibility being driven by the ongoing killing of Palestinians. It’s kind of a confusing situation where you feel like, this is trending right now, but this is not really a trend, she says. Tamimi is ardently focused on preserving the tatreez stitches through innovation and plans to further showcase the beauty and history of Palestine through this art form. Her Freedom Fighter collection is a tribute to resilience and a powerful statement about the resilience of Palestinians. More recent additions to her storealongside the custom embroidery she offersinclude sweaters, T-shirts, and hoodies featuring a 1950s chest panel from a tatreez thobe. On the back, the products read these stitches speak of existence. When I pick up an old piece of embroidery from Palestine, sometimes I’m in tears because I can feel the energy in each piece, says Tamimi. I want them to live on and that’s why I bring them to life.
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E-Commerce
Protesters against billionaire Elon Musks purge of the U.S. government under President Donald Trump demonstrated outside Tesla dealerships throughout the U.S. and in some cities in Europe on Saturday in the latest attempt to dent the fortune of the worlds richest man. The protesters were trying to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musks role as the head of the newly created Department of of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, where he has gained access to sensitive data and shuttered entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending. The biggest portion of Musks estimated $340 billion fortune consists of his stock in the electric vehicle company, which continues to run while also working alongside Trump. After earlier demonstrations that were somewhat sporadic, Saturday marked the first attempt to surround all 277 of the automakers showrooms and service centers in the U.S. in hopes of deepening a recent decline in the companys sales. By early afternoon crowds ranging from a few dozen to hundreds of protesters had flocked to Tesla locations in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Minnesota, and the automaker’s home state of Texas. Pictures posted on social media showed protesters brandishing signs such as Honk if you hate Elon and Fight the billionaire broligarchy. As the day progressed, the protests cascaded around the country outside Tesla locations in major cities such as Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Seattle, as well as towns in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. Smaller groups of counterprotesters also showed up at some sites. Hey, hey, ho, ho, Elon Musk has got to go! several dozen people chanted outside a showroom in Dublin, California, about 35 miles (60 miles) east of San Francisco, while a smaller cluster of Trump supporters waved American flags across the street. A much larger crowd circled another showroom in nearby Berkeley, chanting slogans to the beat of drums. We’re living in a fascist state, said Dennis Fagaly, a retired high school teacher from neighboring Oakland, and we need to stop this or we’ll lose our whole country and everything that is good about the United States. Anti-Musk sentiment extends beyond the U.S. The Tesla Takedown movement also hoped to rally protesters at more than 230 locations in other parts of the world. Although the turnouts in Europe were not as large, the anti-Musk sentiment was similar. About two dozen people held signs lambasting the billionaire outside a dealership in London as passing cars and trucks tooted horns in support. One sign displayed depicted Musk next to an image of Adolf Hitler making the Nazi salutea gesture that Musk has been accused of reprising shortly after Trump’s January 20 inauguration. A person in a Tyrannosaurus rex costume held another sign with a picture of Musk’s straight-arm gesture that said, You thought the Nazis were extinct. Dont buy a Swasticar. We just want to get loud, make noise, make people aware of the problems that were facing, said Cam Whitten, an American who showed up at the London protest. Tesla Takedown was organized by a group of supporters that included disillusioned owners of the automakers vehicles, celebrities such as actor John Cusack, and at least one Democratic Party lawmaker, Rep. Jasmine Crockett from Dallas. Im going to keep screaming in the halls of Congress. I just need you all to make sure you all keep screaming in the streets, Crockett said during an organizing call this month. Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, showed up at a protest in Seattle, which she represents in Congress. Musk backlash has included some vandalism Some people have gone beyond protest, setting Tesla vehicles on fire or committing other acts of vandalism that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has decried as domestic terrorism. In a March 20 company meeting, Musk indicated that he was dumbfounded by the attacks and said the vandals should stop acting psycho. Crockett and other Tesla Takedown supporters have been stressing the importance of Saturdays protests remaining peaceful. But police were investigating a fire that destroyed seven Teslas in northwestern Germany in the early morning. It was not immediately clear if the blaze, which was extinguished by firefighters, was related to the protests. In Watertown, Massachusetts, local police reported that the side mirror of a black pickup struck two people at a protest outside a Tesla service center, according to the Boston Herald. The suspect was promptly identified by police at the scene, who said there were no serious injuries. Musk maintains that the company’s future remains bright A growing number of consumers who bought Tesla vehicles before Musk took over DOGE have been looking to sell or trade them in, while others have slapped on bumper stickers seeking to distance themselves from him. But Musk did not appear concerned about an extended slump in new sales in the March meeting, during which he reassured the workers that the companys Model Y would remain the best-selling car on Earth again this year. He also predicted that Tesla will have sold more than 10 million cars worldwide by next year, up from about seven million currently. There are times when there are rocky moments, where there is stormy weather, but what I am here to tell you is that the future is incredibly bright and exciting, Musk said. After Trump was elected last November, investors initially saw Musks alliance with the president as a positive development for Tesla and its long-running efforts to launch a network of self-driving cars. That optimism helped lift Teslas stock by 70% between the election and Trump’s January 20 inauguration, creating an additional $560 billion in shareholder wealth. But virtually all those gains have vaporated amid investor worries about the backlash, lagging sales in the U.S., Europe, and China, and Musk spending time overseeing DOGE. This continues to be a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this brand tornado crisis moment and get onto the other side of this dark chapter for Tesla, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a recent research note. This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of the surname of Rep. Pramila Jayapal, which appeared in an earlier version. Michael Liedtke, AP business writer Associated Press writers Terry Chea, Mustakim Hasnath, and Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
For most baseball fans, hope springs eternal on Opening Day. Many of those fansmore than you might thinkare women. A 2024 survey found that women made up 39% of those who attended or watched Major League Baseball games, and franchises have taken notice. The Philadelphia Phillies offer behind-the-scenes tours and clinics for their female fans, while the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees offer fantasy camps that are geared to women. The number of women working professionally in baseball has also grown. Kim Ng made history in 2020 when she became the first woman general manager of an MLB team, the Miami Marlins. As of 2023, women made up 30% of central office professional staff and 27% of team senior administration jobs. In addition, 43 women held coaching and managerial jobs across the major and minor league levelsa 95% increase in just two years. As a fan and scholar of the game, Im happy to see more women watching baseball and working in the industry. But it still nags at me that the girls and women who play baseball dont get much recognition, particularly in the U.S. Women take the field In the U.S., baseball is seen as a sport for boys and men. Girls and women, on the other hand, are supposed to play softball, which uses a bigger ball and has a smaller field. It wasnt always this way. Women have been playing baseball in the U.S. since at least the 1860s. At womens colleges such as Smith and Vassar, students organized baseball teams as early as 1866. The first professional womens baseball team was known as the Dolly Vardens, a team of Black players formed in Philadelphia in 1867. Barnstorming teams, known as Bloomer Girls, traveled across the country to play against mens teams from the 1890s to the 1930s, providing the players with independence and the means to make a living. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, founded by Philip K. Wrigley in 1943, also offered women the chance to play professionally. The league, which inspired the 1992 film A League of Their Own, enforced rigid norms of femininity expected at the time. Players were required to wear skirts and makeup while playing and were fined if they engaged in any behavior deemed unladylike. Teams were open only to white women and light-skinned Latinas. Black women were not allowed to play, a policy that reflected the segregation of the Jim Crow era. Three Black womenConnie Morgan, Mamie Peanut Johnson, and Toni Stonedid play in the otherwise male Negro Leagues in the early 1950s. However, their skills were often downplayed by claims that theyd been signed to generate ticket sales and boost interest in the struggling league. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, and by the late-1950s womens participation in baseball had dwindled. Starting in the 1970s, many girls who wanted to play baseball were encouraged to play softball instead. [Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images] Girls funneled into softball Softball was invented in Chicago in 1887 as an indoor alternative to baseball. Originally aimed at both men and women, it eventually became the accepted sport for girls and women due to its smaller field, larger ball, and underhand pitching styleaspects deemed suitable for the supposedly weaker and more delicate female body. The passage of Title IX in 1972 further pushed the popularization of fast-pitch softball, as participation in high school and college increased markedly. In 1974, the National Organization for Women filed a lawsuit against Little League Baseball because the leagues charter excluded girls from playing. The lawsuit was successful, and girls were permitted to join teams. In response, Little League created Little League Softball as a way to funnel girls into softball instead of baseball. As political scientist Jennifer Ring has pointed out, this decision reinforced the gendered division of each sport and cemented the post-Title IX segregated masculinity of baseball. Girls can still play baseball, but most are encouraged to eventually switch to softball if they want to pursue college scholarships. If they want to keep playing baseball, they have to constantly confront stubborn cultural beliefs and assumptions that they should be playing softball instead. A global game You might be surprised to learn that the U.S. fields a national womens baseball team that competes in the Womens Baseball World Cup. But they receive scant media attention and remain unknown to most baseball fans. In a 2019 article published in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, I argued that the U.S. has experienced inconsistent success on the global stage because of a lack of infrastructure, limited resources, and persistent gendered assumptions that hamper the development of womens baseball. Other countries such as Japan, Canada, and Australia have established solid pathways that allow girls and women to pursue baseball from the youth level through high school and beyond. That being said, opportunitie for girls to play baseball are increasing in the U.S. thanks to the efforts of organizations such as Baseball for All and DC Girls Baseball. Approximately 1,300 girls play high school baseball, and a handful of young women play on mens college baseball teams each year. In recent years, numerous womens collegiate club baseball teams have been established; theres even an annual tournament to crown a national champion. Pro league in the works Momentum continues to build. MLB recently appointed Veronica Alvarez as its first girls baseball ambassador, who will oversee development programs such as the Trailblazers Series and the Elite Development Invitational. A new documentary film, See Her Be Her, is touring the country to celebrate the growth of womens baseball and raise awareness of the challenges these athletes face. Perhaps most significantly, the Womens Pro Baseball League announced that it is planning to start play in summer 2026 with six teams located in the northeastern U.S. Over 500 players from 11 countries have registered with the league, with a scouting camp and player draft scheduled for later this year. Should the league have success, it will mark a revitalization of womens professional baseball in the U.S., a nod to the rich history of the womens game and a commitment to securing opportunities for the girls and women who continue to defy cultural norms to play the game they love. Callie Maddox is an associate professor of sport leadership and management at Miami University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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