🖼️ Object Highlight: Burhan Karakotli’s Illustration in a 1982 International Women’s Day Poster

As Curator of the Museum of the Palestinian People, my mission is to make Palestinian arts and culture more visible and legible to the world, and to situate them within the global discourse of art history. To this end, I have developed the Object Highlights essay series to offer critical analysis and contextualization of Palestinian artistic production, cultural identity, and material practices— within Palestine, across the refugee camps, and in diaspora. Each essay centers on a single work of art either created by a Palestinian artist or addressing the Palestinian experience, providing an interpretation of its aesthetic, cultural, and historical significance. All objects featured in this series are drawn from the permanent collection of the Museum of the Palestinian People in Washington, DC.

To learn more about the museum’s collections and ongoing research, please visit: https://mpp-dc.org/learn/. Please cite this essay if you reference or quote it in your writing, materials, and research.

Wafa Ghnaim, "Object Highlight: Burhan Karakotli’s Illustration in a 1982 International Women’s Day Poster,” The Tatreez Institute (blog), March 8, 2025, https://www.tatreezandtea.com/tatreezing/2025/3/object-highlight-burhan-karakotlis-illustration-of-a-palestinian-woman-in-a-1982-international-womens-day-poster.

---

Burhan Karakotli’s (1933-2003) illustration of a Palestinian woman in a traditional thobe remains an enduring and widely circulated image. Created by the General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) in 1982 in Beirut, the poster features Arabic text translating to “Hail to all women struggles on their commemoration day”, alongside English that marks “8th of March The International Women’s Day.” When Karakotli produced this illustration in the 1970s, Palestinian women had emerged as powerful visual symbols of national struggle, identity, and revolution. The central figure, depicted in traditional dress and armed, stands monumentally with a distant gaze, embodying resilience and steadfastness. Behind her, a procession of Palestinian women carrying clay water jugs beneath birds in flight—symbols of tradition, peace, and prosperity—reinforces themes of endurance and collective strength. Despite their active roles in resistance, education, arts, and society, male artists of the era often favored a static, framed representation of Palestinian women, visually situating them as both the bearers of cultural heritage and the progenitors of future generations of resistance.

Artwork Details
Title: “International Women's Day Poster” (1982)
Artist: General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW)
Credit Line: Institute for Palestine Studies
🖼 Object No. 2022.043
📏 Dimensions: 20.5 x 30.5 inches
🔎 On View Now