بتير: Half of which were common in Battir نصفها كان سائداً في بتير

The Palestinian thoub “dress” is not merely a matter of knitting. The Japanese knit, the Chinese knit, the British knit, the Palestinians knit and all the peoples of the world, men and women, knit. However, history did not mention any single Palestinian thoub ever knit by a man. It is a matter of exclusivity for the Palestinian woman. She had invented it with colors inspired from her countryside and inherited it from her grandmothers.

Under the British Mandage, the Palestinian man worker in Palestine used to get a 10-piaster daily wage from dawn to dusk, whereas his wife used to wear luxurious, silk-embroidered thoubs, hand-made often on the oil-lantern light, in their own leisure, most probably after having finished her field and house work.

The Palestinian woman wore the silk-embroidered thoub on her wedding, at home, in the field, in the market, sometimes in bed and even if she had to graze her sheep and look after them, she used to wear the silk thoub, too.

When the city of Hebron initiated the largest Palestinian thoub in the world, she meant to make an appropriately sized thoub big enough to fit the pride of the Palestinian woman.