Hat tip to Little Green Footballs:
Found at Dunkin Donuts’ Breakfast Choices:
Ah, the perky Rachael Ray, official spokesperson for Dunkin’ Donuts, is wearing a über-fashionable keffiyeh.
In a world of fuzzy kittens and colorful rainbows the keffiyeh is a traditional headdress of Arab men, made of a square of cloth (”scarf”), usually cotton, folded and wrapped in various styles around the head. It is commonly found in arid climate areas to provide protection from direct sun exposure, as well as for occasional use in protecting the mouth and eyes from blown dust and sand.
But in a world that has suffered under radical Islamic terrorism for the last 20 years, the keffiyeh is a trademark symbol of Yasser Arafat, who was rarely seen without his peculiarly arranged black-and-white scarf. The keffiyeh was commonly seen on Leila Khaled, a female member of the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The colors of the stitching in a keffiyeh are also vaguely associated with Palestinians’ political sympathies.
Increased sympathy and activism by certain Westerners toward Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the years of the Oslo Peace Accords and Second Intifada have led to the wearing of keffiyehs as a sign of their solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian people. For example, the slang “keffiyeh kinderlach” refers to young left-wing Jews, particularly college students, who sport a keffiyeh around the neck as a political/fashion statement. While Western protesters wear differing styles and shades of keffiyeh, the most prominent is the black-and-white keffiyeh. This is typically worn around the neck like a neckerchief.
Maybe for Ms. Ray her keffiyeh is simply been seen as chic. But the keffiyeh is part of the general Israeli-Arab controversy, with supporters of the Palestinian cause seeing the keffiyeh as a symbol of a just cause, while most pro-Israelis see the keffiyeh as representing anti-Semitism, terrorism, or the intention to eliminate the Jewish State. In 2007, the American clothing store chain, Urban Outfitters, stopped selling keffiyehs because of fear that selling them might be seen “to imply any sympathy for or support of terrorists or terrorism.”
Personally I just think Ms. Ray is far more concerned with looking “cool” to all the stay-at-home soccer moms and brain-dead college girls that watch her show. I really don’t think she’s trying to make any political statement of any kind. She’s got personal handlers to manage all her wardrobe decisions. But I cannot help but wonder if should could have been encouraged so easily to wear this:
After all, the swastika was a significant religious symbol of ancient Germanic, Greek, and Indo-Iranian cultures.
Rachael Ray, Dunkin’ Donuts, keffiyeh
