Garbed in traditional attire from across the Levant — a geographical region in the Eastern Mediterranean — nearly 100 students and community members filled Lucas Room 341 on April 19 for a women-only event celebrating Palestinian culture through dance, food and shared tradition.
UNC Charlotte’s Arabic Student Association (ASO) collaborated with Aswat Al-Ard, the University’s Palestinian debka group and grassroots organization Charlotte United for Palestine (CUP), to create a night of dance, food and cultural activities, letting attendees immerse themselves in Palestinian culture.
Aswat Al-Ard, led by second-year student Tala Badran, performed a traditional Levantine folk dance named debka. The performance featured energetic moves and jumps, and the crowd responded with cheers and zaghareet — a high-pitched vocal trill produced by women in the Levant to express celebration and pride.
Other performances invited attendees to join in dancing debka, as women filled the dance floor, waving scarves and forming a large circle.
“Celebration is a form of resistance,” Badran said. “No matter where we are — whether in the U.S. or Palestine — we carry our culture with us.”
A focus on education
The event also aimed to raise awareness about the lack of access to education in the Levant. All ticket proceeds were donated to the Palestinian Student Scholarship Fund, which supports Palestinian students pursuing a higher education.
“It costs $2,000 to support a Palestinian student’s education for one year; $1,000 to support a non-medical student through a year,” Badran said.
Badran serves as Aswat Al-Ard’s president, as well as the Palestinian Cultural Organization’s event manager. She opened the event with remarks about its purpose to support and promote the education of Palestinians who are less fortunate than students in the United States.
For organizers, the event centered on the value of education.
“Education is a form of resistance, and it is very important that we support our brothers and sisters in Gaza who are trying to get their education, become doctors, save lives, while going through a genocide, while not knowing what they’re going to eat for dinner,” Badran said.
The importance of henna
Henna, a plant-based dye traditionally used in celebrations, was a central feature of the evening. Attendees gathered to have intricate designs applied, a practice often associated with weddings and cultural rituals across the region. They could also create their own henna to take home, and henna applicators were offered as party favors. Henna is commonly known to be a symbol of love and prosperity, but at this event, it also served as a symbol of resistance.
“The henna is kind of like a form of resistance. All the girls get together and share the same sense of culture and unity that we can’t express [in less welcoming areas]. And celebrations are very big things for all of us, so we take it very seriously,” Nadia Tarazi, a third-year student and the vice president of ASO, said.
Attendees lined up to receive a henna service provided by local henna artist Fareeha with her business FN Henna Studio.
Henna was not the only feature of the night. Atlas Brews and Knafeh Kitchen sold drinks and desserts to attendees. Both businesses are local to Charlotte. Atlas Brews is a coffee cart known for its service at weddings, parties and pop-ups, and Knafeh Kitchen is known for its knafeh, a traditional Eastern dessert, with custom designs.
Tables also lined the room offering foods traditional to Palestine, such as watermelon, olives, pickles and more.
A women-only night
The women-only setting created a space where attendees could engage more freely with cultural traditions often practiced in female-centered environments.
Badran pointed out that there aren’t many girls-only events available on campus. This event helped fill that gap by creating a more comfortable and inclusive space for women.
“Henna is a very generic thing that Arabs do before a wedding. It’s kind of like a bachelorette party but different, and every country has its own spin on it, so that’s why we decided to have it specified to a specific culture,” Tarazi said.
She went on to discuss how one of the organization’s main focuses is raising awareness about what different cultures do for different events.
The message
As this is the third year of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the lack of success for this territory is causing some to lose hope, and others to forget.
While the event highlighted ongoing challenges, it also created a space for joy, connection and cultural pride — something organizers said was just as important as raising awareness.
“At the end of the day,” Badran said, “We just want people to feel joy.”