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Culture 11

In Turabdin there were several families who were involved in the dying of fabric. An example is the Beṯ-Sawoce family in Midyat. The colours were extracted from the leaves of trees, vegetables and lichens found on the rocks in Turabdin. The men usually wore darker colours and the women used fabrics with patterns of colourful flowers. Outside, the men wore hats; the models depended on the period in which they lived. Inside the church the men would take off their hat. The women covered their head with colourful scarfs. Until about the 1980s single women often used one scarf and married women and grandmothers would use two scarves; each generation would use the scarves in different ways on their head.At times of mourning, people wore black and widows continued to dress in black for their whole life. From the age of about 50, women or grandmothers wore a dress, which was called bëšto, consisting of different parts.

A saying about clothes is: Julo lo ṭrele taḥtan ‘he has caused us many problems’ (literally ‘he has not left a cloth under us’).