Fatema

Saleha Akter Urmi; [Facilitator]

Hand fan project

Fultola (embroidery)

Embroidery (EMB)

Decorative

When Fatema was a child her mother would lovingly deorate her hair with tara ful (aster flower), especially when she attended school. This flower always reminds Fatema of her mother’s love and her childhood.

Gardens in Myanmar were filled with a wide variety of flowers. Drawing inspiration from these flowers, Rohingya women would embroider them on hand fans which were later used to fan guests or sold for 500 kyat thus allowing them to have an income of their own. It is also tradition for parents to present hand fans to their newly wed daughters. Rohingya women wanted to recreate the hand-fans because they want to have a reminder of the possessions they owned in Myanmar.