Definition:

The keffieh, or keffiyeh, is a traditional, elegant, comfortable, square-shaped, cotton or wool Arab headdress worn mostly by men, especially in the Levant--Northern Egypt, Palestine-Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and parts of Iraq-- and North Africa to protect against the sun or against dust.

Although the keffiyeh is woven in many styles and colors, one type in particular--checkered red and white or black and white--became ufairly and stereotypically identified in the 1970s with the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose fedaiyeen militants and terrorists commonly wore it (as did their leader, Yasser Arafat).

Some people wore the keffiyeh in solidarity with the PLO.

By the 1990s and later, the keffiyeh was as much fashion statement in the West as it was useful clothing in the Mideast. The keffieh, in brief, is as old as the sands of Sudan and Saudi Arabia, as varied and popular in its uses from the Fertile Crescent to the Maghreb, as dear to Bedouins as Birkenstocks are to Vermonters, and as adaptable and belovedly marketed by Westerners, who can fit the keffieh to their climes rather than let their bigotries project juvenile assumptions on the checkered cloth.

The keffiyeh was so ubiquitous in the 19th century in lands colonized or coveted by the French or the British that colonists took to wearing it for its comforts and distinctive look, just as students in coldish France and England, who couldn’t care less about its political threads, these days wear it for its warmth and fashionable malleability. For British soldiers in the Middle East, who refer to the keffiyeh as shemaghs, the headdress became standard issue during World War II, and remains so for British soldiers who served in Iraq or for soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

American soldiers in both places have taken to wearing the keffiyeh as well.

Also Known As: Shemaghs

Alternate Spellings: keffiyah, kefiye, kaffiyeh