Novelist Jhumpa Lahiri rejects award in protest of New York Museum’s Palestinian scarf ban

Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, famous for novels and short stories featuring immigrant characters, has declined an award from New York City’s Noguchi Museum after it fired employees for wearing keffiyeh- a Palestinian scarf that is used to express solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

The announcement was made by Noguchi Museum New York in a statement that read, “Jhumpa Lahiri has chosen to withdraw her acceptance of the 2024 Isamu Noguchi Award in response to our updated dress code policy.”

Jhumpa is a British-American author whose parents were Bengalis from the East Indian region. Her work mostly centres around immigrants. She won the esteemed Pulitzer Prize back in 2000 for her book Interpreter of Maladies.

Keffiyeh has become a symbol of resistance throughout the world as protestors demand an end to the genocide in Gaza.

Earlier, at the end of November 2023, three Palestinian students were shot for wearing their country’s traditional keffiyeh scarves in Vermont, USA.

On May 19, a 42-year-old Texas woman attempted to drown a 6-year-old Palestinian girl.