Object History
Khawlah Hafudh Khalid was born in Al Adamiyah neighbourhood in Baghdad, Iraq in 1939. Educated at the convent school of Baghdad, she graduated with a BSC in pharmacy from Baghdad University and followed it with a pharmacology MSC.
She married Anwar Dhiab in 1967 and had a daughter and two sons who bore her seven grandchildren. In 1980, she immigrated to the USA with her family and presently resides in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts.
Khawlah Hafudh Khalid has a passion for knowledge in all its forms and enjoys reading, socialising, and helping her community and friends. She is a family friend of Dr. Reem Tariq El Mutwalli and an avid supporter of The Zay Initiative. She has donated many articles of clothing of her own as well as her family’s.
Object Features
This long veil (shal) or (tarhah) is made of white cotton metal-embellished net-fabric (tur_bi_talli), adorned with silver straw (talli) or (khus) , that lends to the weightiness of the article as a whole.
The talli work covers the full veil. Both outer edges are adorned in a border of two zigzag lines that form continuous lozenge shapes known as a border (kanarat) motif. While the selvedge edges are adorned with a repeated diagonal line known as key (muftah) motif.
The central portion of the shawl is comprised of three very large lozenge shapes that consist of lozenges, one repeated inside the other. In addition, there are two small-sized lozenges that connect the larger lozenges to each other. The remaining space is covered by a much smaller wavy pattern known as water (mayiah) motif.
The talli work requires a needle 1/8 inch wide. The 3 mm wide talli straw is inserted into the holes in the cotton or linen fabric, longitudinally, horizontally, or diagonally to form various geometric shapes. Each time the straw is inserted into the fabric, it is pressed with the tip of the finger to flatten it, and after finishing decorating the fabric, it is hammered with a special tool, or a hard ball is rolled over it.
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