Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
With a keen eye and what remained of his sight, Bassam Al-Muati succeeded in inserting a thin thread into the tip of his needle after one or two attempts. Then he began to poke stitches with it into a piece of cloth specially prepared to be embroidered for a Palestinian peasant woman carrying an ax and working on her land.
In a profession that has become almost entirely limited to women, the young Palestinian man, Bassam Al-Muati (36 years old), despite his visual disability, creates work in making various embroideries, which reflects a solid will and great effort to reach this stage, which extends over twenty-five years.
All that Muti needed while he was weaving a piece of embroidery in front of us was a simple light to carry out his task to perfection. The place did not meet his needs, especially since his disability rate reached 95%. He started and finished his work only when we asked him to, so that we could continue the conversation about his story with embroidery.
He did not have any luck in academic education despite reaching high school, so he went to learn a craft that would make a living for him and that would make him independent of people. He found his opportunity for that at the Al-Aliyah School for the Blind in his city of Bethlehem in the south of the West Bank. He learned the craft of embroidery despite its difficulty, and specialized in knitting for females.
Al-Muati was not the only one who surprised us as he continued to prick his needle to complete his plastic painting, but astonishment appeared on the faces of those attending an exhibition of Palestinian products held in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, where we met him there.
capital
“This is my capital, and my companion for the 25 years I spent between training and working, and now I have become a trainer for this great craft,” Al-Muati says as he turned around, leaving behind his kit of embroidery thread and needle.
Since his childhood, the young man, Al-Muati, sought to be different, and he found in this craft what he was looking for, and therefore the “secret of his distinction” was in mastering it well, and by learning its types, shapes and techniques, but he excelled more in something that many people do not master, even those who are skilled in embroidery, so he became unique in embroidering with “Natch”.
This type of embroidery (Natch) has two sides, a smooth one on the front and a rough one on the back, prepared according to the Braille language for the blind, so that the blind person can recognize the embroidered shape by its texture, and say: “My work meets the needs of both normal and visually impaired people.”
Palestinian Central Statistics data indicate that, as of 2017, 255,228 individuals in Palestine suffer from at least one disability, and visual is classified as the second disability after movement, constituting 2.6%.
With these rising numbers, Al-Muati loses his right to a public job that would help him make a living, and the thread and needle are still his support in earning his living, taking the exhibitions as his opportunity to market his crafts. He says: It is “more rewarding” and directly strengthens his relationship with customers, despite his activity and marketing attempts through social media.
heritage
His works hung on the walls above his head in the exhibition, and varied between the Palestinian heritage in its various forms, working on the land, in the home, or in joy, through the painting of the Palestinian wedding and small comments (medals). Al-Muati was creative in engraving embroideries of symbols and sanctities such as the Dome of the Rock Mosque and Quranic verses.
He did not forget the coexistence between Muslims and Christians in his city of Bethlehem - the cradle of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him - so he created a drawing of Santa Claus, a gift distributor on Christian holidays.
In addition to embroideries, street brooms and paint brushes appeared. The young man, Al-Muati, is creative in making them. They are no less difficult than embroidery, as they require high precision in the stitches and styling of their wooden base. He says: “I take advantage of every craft I have learned to benefit from it.”
This professionalism led Al-Muati to the field of training to obtain international and Palestinian certificates in this field, and to become internationally accredited in the Arab Parliament for training experts in Jordan, and accordingly, he holds multiple training courses for women and the men he seeks.
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Achievements and Awards
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