Today’s Enlightening Entertainment will be presented in Arabic, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Welcome, respected viewers. Today, we will present the first part of a 2-part series about the In’ash Al-Usra Society’s Museum of Palestinian Folk Heritage, in Ramallah, Palestine. Ramallah is a beautiful city in the central West Bank, 6 miles north of Jerusalem. Founded in the 16th century, the city has a population of 25,500 inhabitants.

The In’ash Al-Usra Society (Rejuvenation of the Family) is a charity which was founded in 1965 as an initiative by Mrs. Samiha Khalil, a much loved Palestinian community leader. She firmly believed in the values of empowerment and self-sufficiency, and inspired many people through her life of community and national service.

The In’ash Al-Usra Society assists women in acquiring skills to earn their livelihood and to become active participants and decision makers in their communities.

The society runs the In’ash College, the Studies Center for Palestinian Heritage, a vocational training center, two clinics for health and dental services, a garment factory, a kindergarten and a nursery. It gives scholarly funds and provides housing and cash assistance to the needy as well as to victims of conflict.

The Museum of Palestinian Folk Heritage was founded in 1977, as part of the society’s objective to develop folk handicrafts and to preserve Palestinian folklore.

Mr. Sami, who is a tour guide in the museum, will now show us around the exhibits’ collection. The museum is filled with items which traditionally have been used in Palestinian households.

Here, we notice that the Palestinian woman used to grind barley, wheat, or freekeh (roasted green wheat) by using a grinder this way… and she put either the Freekeh or wheat here, and then the ground item comes out from here. She used to grind everything and put a plate, a container, or something like that. Here we can see a cradle.

The Palestinian woman used to sway and comfort her baby in order to calm him, so, it was a a lot of work, and she did that until her baby calmed down and slept. This place is called “alkhabia,” it's the place where you can keep wheat and barley, or the hoard of the whole year, the place here has small windows to take sugar, rice, wheat, and from here, the freekeh and some other items.

Here is a wardrobe to put woolen blankets, covers, and mattresses in it, and this box is called almerkaz. This box… this is the wedding box; each Palestinian bride used to buy a box of this kind, and used to keep all her personal things and all her belongings inside this box. She kept all her money in this box, so the box has a key. There is no bride in Palestine without such a box. Since more than 40 years ago until now, every bride had such a box. It was one of her rights to have a box like this.

These are some items that used to be in the guest house or in the house of the family. This is the lamp as we have said earlier, and these are trays. Here is also what they used to prepare coffee or to heat many other things or to warm the home or guest house. This is a sieve. This is a lantern and it's like the lamp and it's used for lighting at night. This is called oud.

Those are brooms, those are some kinds of plates that were used to prepare food and the like. These are some of the items that were used in the Palestinian family home, in the house. This box was used to keep clothes and the personal things inside. This is called… it's like a basin for the home. You can see it from here. This also can be used for water, it can be used to keep the water cold in summer or to keep the water warm in winter.

This is the water hole, right here. There was a water hole, and this bucket was for it. This item was called meckel. We put water in this meckel and all kinds of birds come to drink from it.

After we return, we will continue our tour through the Museum of Palestinian Folk Heritage in Ramallah in Palestine. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Enlightening Entertainment and our visit to the In’ash El-Usra Society’s Museum of Palestinian Folk Heritage in Ramallah. Our tour guide Mr. Sami will now show us more traditional items of Palestinian daily life. We are now visiting the museum’s beautiful exhibit of a traditional Palestinian guest house.

This is a guest house. The householder used to come to the guest house, as every family in Palestine has a guest house to receive guests and people, and the friends used to meet together and gather with each other in the sheikh's home and used to narrate their stories, their problems.

Anybody who has a problem within his house, within the family or with other people, used to come here to complain to the sheikh. Also, they used to stay up late at night together and to have a good time playing the rebeck, and singing like this way, and the people around the singer sing with him as a chorus or listen to his songs.

This rebeck has a deep meaning, it's not just an instrument to be played, it's also a kind of entertainment, and the singer uses it to express about social issues, meaning it's a kind of media to express what is happening in the society. And there is the coffee man who is using the coffee pot this way and he prepares coffee for the guests. This item is used for the coal.

This is the black coffee. They used black coffee as we can see here. It's necessary to know that the coffee pot is used with the left hand. He pours coffee with the left hand, and hold the cup in the right hand and drink it this way. They pour a very little quantity, just about one or two sips. It's something like courtesy when friends gather together. We used this charcoal to prepare coffee.

Mr. Sami shows us a traditional wooden Palestinian house door with a simple lock mechanism. He explains that there was no need for elaborate security systems since burglary virtually did not exist among the neighborly Palestinian people.

This door was used as a main gate to close all the doors, and there was no metal door. This is called the old style of door closer, and the big key that you see there is used here. As you can see right here, these are the kinds of wood, and this is the mechanism of the doors, there was no another mechanism, most people used this mechanism for the doors. There was no stealing, even though there wasn't a powerful army. There was no breaking into people houses, there was an abundance of politeness, good manners, and love.

Next, we will visit the museum’s embroidery collection. The pieces which are displayed here are produced by the In’ash El-Usra Society’s embroidery production center, which employs over 3,000 women and girls working from their homes.

As we can see here, there are so many Palestinian embroideries, with different designs, different colors. As you can see, here is a design, and here is another design. Here also we have another design, As you see, here we have a different design. Here, there are also different kinds of designs. This is the Palestinian jacket that was and is still sacred for the Palestinian people and it became an important jacket in all the events, and it's the standard one in all the Palestinian wedding parties.

Here are the same clothes also – very nice clothes that we feel proud about wherever we go. This was and will be our jacket, God willing. This is a jacket that is worn above the dress. For example it was worn this way. This is for women only, not for men; in other words, the Palestinian ladies used to wear this jacket over any dress.

But of course each dress has its own jacket. Do you see this, it's necessary for this to be of the black color. And there is also another thing… This is called a scarf; every Palestinian lady used to wear this uniform. Just in the last 10 or 20 years, some ladies turned to wear what is called “loose garments” as a kind of religious Islamic dress, but before that, all of them used to wear this dress or uniform.

This kind of embroidery was made by using The sewing machine or by using what is called the loom. So, the In’ash Al-Usra Society (Rejuvenation of the Family) was known for its Palestinian embroideries, and its main aim was to keep this heritage from getting lost. That's why it's one of the organizations that have done their best and spent their money, energy, and efforts in order to keep this immortal heritage which will continue to stay until the Judgment Day.

Thank you, warm-hearted viewers, for your company on today’s program. Please join us next Friday, August 27, for the final half of our 2-part series on the Museum of Palestinian Folk Heritage in Ramallah, Palestine, founded by the In’ash El-Usra Society. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News. Wishing you Heaven’s blessings, farewell for now.

For more information on the In’ash El-Usra Society’s Museum of Palestinian Folk Heritage, please visit

Thank you, warm-hearted viewers, for your company on today’s program. Please join us next Friday, August 27, for the final half of our 2-part series on the Museum of Palestinian Folk Heritage in Ramallah, Palestine, founded by the In’ash El-Usra Society. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News. Wishing you Heaven’s blessings, farewell for now.

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See Afghanistan’s exquisite treasures in a 3-part series starting Tuesday, August 24, on Supreme Master Television’s Enlightening Entertainment.