Rashida Tlaib Will Wear Traditional Palestinian Robe For Swearing-In Ceremony
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — Rashida Tlaib, the newly elected Democratic congresswoman from Michigan, said she will wear a traditional Palestinian robe for her swearing-in ceremony.
“Sneak peek: This is what I am wearing when I am sworn into Congress. #PalestinianThobe #ForMyYama,” Tlaib wrote in an Instagram post on Friday. She posted a photo of the black robe embroidered with pink thread and other accent colors.
A thobe is a traditional hand-embroidered Palestinian garment. Yama is the Arabic word for mother.
Tlaib, who is Palestinian American and one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress, told The Intercept in a story published earlier this month that she plans to eschew the AIPAC trip to Israel for new lawmakers and instead will lead a trip of incoming lawmakers to the West Bank.
In the same interview she also came out in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, which she said brings attention to “issues like the racism and the international human rights violations by Israel right now.”
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