Resolute RGL is a shoe and accessories brand rooted in the embroidery traditions Palestinian women have passed down for generations. Working with the Women’s Weaving Cooperative of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, the brand creates made-to-order pieces featuring tatreez, traditional Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery. The women are majority shareholders, and their earnings help sustain their families as the Israeli occupation actively strips away their livelihoods.
I attended Resolute’s September 22nd celebration at the United Nations, where embroidered shoes were on display alongside short, captioned films about the women who make them. The evening brought their work up close, then asked us to listen. We heard what earning their own money means: to raise children, live a normal life, and see their dreams play out. To fulfill basic human needs.
“When I started the embroidery project, thank God, I felt how good it is to have income from my own work.”
Embroidery has been practiced and carried down in Palestine for many generations. The cooperative has 250 members, and each tatreez panel takes between 14 and 24 hours to stitch by hand, with gorgeous colors pulled from the mountainous villages of the South Hebron Hills.
Seeing the shoes up close gave us a chance to appreciate their hours of work and labor. Palestinian organizer Rania Batrice and Resolute RGL co-founder Maria Chacour shared more about the project and how it brought paid work to women whose opportunities to earn had disappeared amid war and ongoing occupation. Among Resolute RGL’s co-founders are filmmaker Basel Adra, the Oscar-winning co-director of No Other Land, and his mother, activist and cooperative founder Kifah Adra.
The films screened that evening also introduced us to the passion, plans, and personalities of the women who embroider. Hajar wants to open a beauty salon in Tuwani. Ranad spoke proudly of her studies in special education and the roughly five-hour journey back and forth to Birzeit University to finish her degree. She longs to teach children how to read and write.
“I want people to know that we are people too. We want to live, we want to accomplish things.”
They also spoke about fearing for their children and facing threats to the land and animals their families depend on. The Israeli military has destroyed their olive trees, driven off or stolen their sheep, and terrorized their families at every waking moment. Leaving them with high amounts of stress, fear for their lives, and the loss of sacred connections that make them feel human.
For some, embroidery offers a way to work through their pain while earning money. And it’s very clear that they haven’t and will not give up hope.
That evening, we were encouraged to support the work of these women by shopping at Resolute RGL. RGL stands for “Reclaiming Global Looms,” a brand putting ownership in the hands of its makers. In an industry where the labor of women and children is so often exploited, a business built on fair pay, cultural respect, and shared ownership deserves our attention.
Palestinian women deserve to earn a living, care for their families, and make plans for their lives with the freedom and safety we all deserve.
Shop at Resolute RGL to support Palestinian women and help keep Palestine’s embroidery traditions alive for generations to come.
