Tatreez, the Arabic word for embroidery, refers to the cross-stitch work Palestinian women have practiced for centuries, traditionally passed from mother to daughter. Worked by hand onto the thobe, the traditional embroidered dress, tatreez uses geometric motifs drawn from daily life: cypress trees, orange blossoms, birds, and the shapes of the land itself. Historically, a woman's home village could often be read in the colors and patterns she stitched, since each region across Palestine developed its own distinct visual style.
After the Nakba of 1948 displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, tatreez took on new meaning. Patterns once tied to a specific village became something diaspora families carried with them into exile, a way of holding onto memory and place when the land itself was out of reach. Today, tatreez is practiced across Palestine and its diaspora alike, as craft, as storytelling, and as an enduring act of cultural memory. In 2021, UNESCO recognized the art of embroidery in Palestine as part of humanity's Intangible Cultural Heritage.