Cultural heritage preservation in the Levant

By Naveed Malik

At 93 years old, Widad Kawar is still working hard. Her mission is to preserve the cultural identity of Levantine women at her museum, the Tiraz Center: Home for Arab Dress, in Amman, Jordan. 

“Things in life are changing so fast that you want to keep the identity of the older generation, their heritage, their dress. [Heritage] develops and develops, it never stops,” said Kawar in a social media video that she filmed with Embassy Amman’s public affairs team. 

Throughout Women’s History Month, the embassy partnered with Kawar to exhibit 12 dresses at the chief of mission’s residence, which were curated from among the Tiraz Center’s collection of more than 2,000 dresses. Ambassador Henry T. Wooster hosted Kawar, a group of emerging and established fashion designers, and other industry professionals for an iftar to celebrate Jordanian women’s economic empowerment through fashion design and textiles, March 29.

“Most of the people who come to see the museum are young girls, and what do they come for?” explained Kawar, “[T]hey want the design, and they are very much interested in business. They want to have a center where they can produce costumes in a modernized way.” 

Designers at the iftar echoed Kawar’s mission of staying true to one’s cultural identity while also innovating to push fashion forward. They spoke passionately about the need for more bachelor’s-level fashion design programs in Jordan—there is currently only one—so that aspiring designers are not compelled to leave Jordan to study the discipline.  

Cultural heritage preservation in Jordan is synonymous with iconic sites like Petra, but preserving traditional dress and design is also central to this effort and appreciated by local audiences. The embassy is partnering with champions of fashion design and marketing by sponsoring skills-building workshops and exchange programs to foster inclusive economic opportunities for women and girls in marginalized communities. As Kawar notes, encouraging young Jordanian women to enter the fashion industry, where many choose to blend the traditional and the modern, “makes the heritage alive.”

Naveed Malik is a public diplomacy officer for Emerging Voices at Embassy Amman.