Keffiyeh vs. Shemagh

Keffiyeh

The keffiyeh or kufiya (Arabic: كُوفِيَّة‎ kūfiyyah, meaning “from the city of Kufa” (الْكُوفَة); plural كُوفِيَّات kūfiyyāt), also known as a ghutrah (غُترَة), shemagh (شُمَاغ šumāġ), ḥaṭṭah (حَطَّة), mashadah (مَشَدَة), chafiye, dastmal yazdi (Kurdish: دستمال یزدی‎) or cemedanî (Kurdish: جه مه داني‎), is a traditional Middle Eastern headdress, or what is sometimes called a habit, worn in the Middle East with origins from the Fertile Crescent (Iraq, the Levant, and Egypt) fashioned from a square scarf, usually made of cotton. It is commonly found in arid regions as it provides protection from sunburn, dust and sand. Toward the end of the 1980s, the keffiyeh became a fashion accessory in the United States and, during the 2000s, it became very popular among teenagers in Tokyo, Japan, where it is often worn with camouflage-style clothing.