In this episode of Siti’s Stories, Laila sits with Wafa Ghnaim an art and dress historian, embroiderer, educator, and founder of the Tatreez Institute for a conversation about tatreez as inherited knowledge and preservation.

Wafa shares how tatreez entered her life as an intergenerational skill passed through the women around her, and how stitching became something she returned to again and again.

In this conversation, you’ll hear about:

• Her journey from classroom teacher to researcher and eventually becoming a historian of Palestinian dress.
• Her work with major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Victoria and Albert Museum & why museums that hold Palestinian dress have a moral and ethical responsibility to steward these collections transparently and accessibly
• How witnessing the genocide in Gaza has changed her, and how she turned to writing, archiving, and sitting with the dresses as a way to endure
• The lessons Palestinian women past and present have taught her about identity, self-expression, and being unapologetically yourself

We also settle some very important (and very serious) fashion questions… belts on thobes.

This conversation holds it all: the personal, the educational, and the lighthearted.

Additional resources mentioned in the episode:

• Wafa’s publication with the Met: Tatreez in Time
  https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/tatreez-in-time
• Traditional Palestinian Costume by Hanan Munayyer — one of Wafa’s mentors (including the hot pink thobe discussed in the episode)
  https://interlinkbooks.com/traditional-palestinian-costume/

Learn more about Wafa and her mother’s work at:
🌿 tatreezandtea.com

Connect with Wafa:
📍 Instagram: @tatreezandtea

Connect with Siti’s Stories:
🎧 sitisstories.com
📸 @sitis.stories

In this episode, I sit down with Najla Khass, a Palestinian-American activist and refugee resettlement manager. Born in Gaza, Najla fled with her family at eight years old during the First Intifada, part of a long history of displacement that traces back to the 1948 Nakba.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Growing up in Gaza with fear and restriction but also so much love and the ways her parents tried to protect shield her living under occupation.
• Soldiers as a childhood boogeyman and the constant presence of unknown
• Arriving in the U.S. as a traumatized child and experiencing so many levels of culture shock
• She shares stories of her grandmothers whose humor, courage, and resistance shaped her understanding of strength and resilience.
• How Najla uses her lived experience to support refugees with deep empathy and awareness
• Building community and advocacy through House of Hope, a home and network created to support Gazan refugees with dignity

This conversation was recorded before the most recent ceasefire, at a time when emotions were already heavy. Listening now, Najla’s story feels even more urgent and even more grounding in its reminder of how lived experience can be transformed into helping others.

Connect with Najla: Follow Najla: @lady_najla80

Learn more about House of Hope: gazahouseofhope.org

Connect with Siti’s Stories:

Follow Siti’s Stories: @sitis.stories

Visit: sitisstories.com

Filmmaker Cherien Dabis joins Siti’s Stories for an honest, layered conversation about representation, intergenerational trauma, and why film became her way of telling stories with care and truth.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• What it was like growing up Arab in small-town America after the Gulf War feeling invisible and hyper-visible at the same time
• Why stories carry real power and how film became Cherien’s way of pushing back against harmful stereotypes
• A reflection on intergenerational trauma and how occupation touches every Palestinian family across generations
• How grief and anger can be transformed into creative work that honors humanity rather than explaining it
• Her latest film, All That’s Left of You, an intergenerational Palestinian film and how its production became a reflection of displacement itself
• A candid conversation about racism in Hollywood and the necessity of building your own spaces when systems refuse entry
• How hearing audiences say “I didn’t know, and now I see” continues to fuel this work

This conversation is about reclaiming narrative; about telling our stories as they are, without translation or permission, and honoring the humanity that has always been there.

🎬 All That’s Left of You - Screenings & Showtimes

https://www.watermelonpictures.com/films/all-thats-left-of-you

Connect with Cherien Dabis

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheriendabis/
Production Company: https://www.visibilityfilms.com

Connect with Siti’s Stories

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sitis.stories/
Website: https://www.sitisstories.com

In this episode, we sit down with multidisciplinary artist and urban planner Dana Barqawi to explore the power of art as resistance, storytelling, and truth-telling.

Dana’s work challenges colonial narratives, honors Indigenous identity, and reflects the interconnectedness of womanhood, history, and community. Her creative process begins with deep research and writing; transforming emotion and lived experience into visual language that speaks across generations.

Topics we explore:
• Art as communication and community-building
• Palestinian identity and Indigenous storytelling
• Womanhood, memory, and intergenerational influence
• Art as resistance to colonial narratives
• Channeling emotion into purpose and movement
• The global interconnectedness of oppression but also freedom

If you’re drawn to Palestinian art, social impact, or creative resistance, this conversation offers a powerful look into how art can mobilize, heal, and hold our collective histories.

🌿 Explore Dana’s work: danabarqawi.com
📸 Connect with Dana on Instagram: Dana_Barqawi

✨ Connect with us:
Website: sitisstories.com Instagram: sitis.stories

📬 Sign up for The Olive Press to get exclusive reflections + behind-the-scenes episode content.

In this tender and deeply grounding episode, we sit with Mai Khader Kakish; storyteller, recipe-keeper, and the heart behind Almond & Fig. 🌿

Mai shares how Almond & Fig began as a way to feel closer to home while her family remained in Palestine; a place to preserve her teta’s recipes and document the stories, wisdom, and traditions woven into every dish. For Mai, food is not just nourishment; it is storytelling, resistance, and the inheritance of a people who survived unimaginable loss.

This episode was recorded during some of the darkest days of the ongoing genocide before any aid was allowed in and at the height of starvation and you can feel both the weight and the warmth in our conversation. We let the episode begin exactly as it unfolded: raw, unfiltered, and honest.

Together, we delve into:
• Preserving ancestral recipes and the love tucked into every little “hastak”
• Armenian–Palestinian lineage, generational survival, and carrying forward what others tried to erase
• Food as memory, identity, resistance, and inheritance
• The grief of losing our grandmothers and keeping their stories alive 🤍
• How food is being intentionally weaponized and the devastating impact of forced starvation
• The work Mai does with the Seraj Library Project

This conversation is about the women who raised us, the hands that fed us, and the ways we continue to carry them; through recipes, memory, and heritage preservation

📚For more about the Seraj Library Project and ways to support, visit serajlibraries.org
Follow Mai at @almondandfig for recipes, heritage, and storytelling.
Stay connected with us: @sitis.stories • sitisstories.com

What does it mean to stitch memory into fabric and to turn thread into a language of home, resistance, and love? ✨

In this week’s episode of Siti’s Stories, I sit with Bayan the founder of Badan Collective a design house and learning space dedicated to preserving Palestinian embroidery, memory, and storytelling. She is also a writer, poet, and a social worker.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
• The meaning and legacy of tatreez and its role in preserving Palestinian identity
• How joy and grief are intertwined threads of Palestinian life
• The power of intergenerational womanhood and ancestral memory
• How slow, human-centered fashion becomes an act of cultural resistance
• Why our generation is stepping into its role as cycle breakers and storykeepers

💌 Subscribe to The Olive Press, Siti’s Stories’ weekly newsletter, for exclusive reflections, heritage resources, and behind-the-scenes letters from each episode.

Connect with Bayan: badancollective.com | @badancollective
Connect with Siti’s Stories: sitisstories.com | @sitis.stories

What happens when a teacher brings her whole self- her culture, her story, her heritage into the classroom?

In this week’s episode of Siti’s Stories, I sit with Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi, an educator, consultant, and advocate with over 20 years of experience supporting Arab and Muslim youth.

Abeer shares her journey from growing up between America and Palestine to founding Altair Consulting, where she helps schools celebrate identity instead of silencing it.

We talk about what it means to teach with heart, to find strength in dual identity, and to infuse joy, faith, and heritage into the spaces we lead.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
• How Abeer’s Palestinian-American upbringing shaped her voice and purpose
• The story behind founding Altair Consulting and her mission to uplift Arab and Muslim youth
• What culturally competent classrooms look and feel like and why they matter
• How joy and storytelling can serve as everyday resistance
• The lessons she carries from her grandmother

💌 Subscribe to The Olive Press newsletter at sitisstories.com for exclusive reflections, recipes, and letters from each episode.

Connect with us: @sitis.stories | sitisstories.com
Connect with Abeer: @altairedconsult | altairedconsulting.com

In this episode of Siti’s Stories, I sit with Nida AbuBaker, daughter of Shukri AbuBaker, co-founder of the Holy Land Foundation.

Nida shares her journey of navigating life after her father’s wrongful conviction; as a daughter, a single mother, a writer, and an advocate for those who have been silenced.

Through faith, art, and poetry, she shows us what it means to turn pain into purpose, and to keep creating even when the world tries to quiet your light.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
• How Nida’s life changed after her father’s imprisonment and how she continues to carry his legacy with strength and grace
• The story of the Holy Land Foundation and its lasting impact on her family and community
• Reflections on identity, heritage, and the interconnected struggles of marginalized communities
• The emotional impact of the genocide in Gaza on political prisoners and their families
• How her father’s book, Light from Deep Under, became an act of resistance and remembrance
• The beauty of her parents’ love and what Palestinian love looks like in the face of separation
• Lessons in generational resilience, motherhood, and faith

🎥 Watch the full-length video on YouTube, one of only a few full length video episodes of the season.

💌 Subscribe to The Olive Press newsletter at sitisstories.com for exclusive reflections, recipes, and behind-the-scenes moments from each episode.

📖 Buy Light from Deep Under on Amazon

🔗Follow along with @freethehlf5 to learn more and keep updated on the Holy Land Foundation case

Connect with us: @sitis.stories | sitisstories.com
Connect with Nida: @livinlanidaloca