Matiel Mogannam Explained

Birth Date:1900
Birth Place:Ottoman Syria
Death Place:Arlington, Virginia, USA
Spouse:Mogannam Mogannam
Children:2
Known For:Secretary of the Arab Women’s Executive
Notable Works:The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem (1937)

Matiel Mogannam (; 1900–1992) was a Lebanese lawyer who headed the women's movement in the 1920s and 1930s in the Mandatory Palestine. She served as the secretary of the Arab Women's Executive (AWE).

Early life and education

Matiel was born in Lebanon into a Christian family in 1900. Soon after her birth the family moved to the USA. There she obtained a law degree.

Career and activities

Mogannam and her husband settled in Jerusalem, Mandate Palestine, in the 1921. She served as one of the two secretaries of the AWE, which financed the Arab Women's Association (AWA) and Arab women's movement in Palestine.

Mogannam was one of the participants of the Palestine Arab Women's Conference held in Jerusalem in 1929. She also participated in the Arab Women's Conference in Beirut in 1930. She made a speech on Palestinian nationalism at the Mosque of Omar in April 1933.[1] The same year she delivered another speech in Jaffa when there were nationalist demonstrations.

Mogannam published articles in the Palestinian newspapers and was the author of a book entitled The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem.[2] The book was first published by the London-based Herbert Joseph in 1937.[3] [4] It is the only book about the women's movement during the Mandate period.

Mogannam and her husband settled in Ramallah in 1938.[5] She returned to the USA in 1980 and lived in Falls Church, Virginia.

Personal life and death

She married Mogannam Mogannam in the USA.[6] He was a lawyer and was a member of the Arab Anglican family from Jerusalem.[7] Matiel's husband was an officer of the National Defense Party. He died in 1943. They had two children, Theodore and Leila.

Matiel died of congestive heart failure at Arlington, Virginia, on 11 August 1992.[8]

Notes and References

  1. Ellen L. Fleischmann. The Emergence of the Palestinian Women's Movement, 1929-39. Journal of Palestine Studies. 29. 3. 2000. 10.2307/2676453. 19, 24. 2676453.
  2. Book: Julie Peteet. Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement. Columbia University Press. 1992. 978-0-231-51605-1. New York. 44.
  3. Rosemary Sayigh. Encounters with Palestinian Women under Occupation. Journal of Palestine Studies. 10. 4. Summer 1981. 10.2307/2536386. 13. 2536386. Rosemary Sayigh.
  4. Web site: The Arab woman and the Palestine problem. WorldCat.org. 22 February 2024.
  5. Book: Ellen L. Fleischmann. Mogannam, Matiel. Philip Mattar. New York. 322. https://books.google.com/books?id=GkbzYoZtaJMC&pg=PA322. 978-0816057641. 2005. Philip Mattar. Revised. Encyclopedia of The Palestinians. Facts On File, Inc..
  6. Book: Matiel E.T. Mogannam. Maureen Moynagh. Nancy Forestell. Documenting First Wave Feminisms: Transnational Collaborations and Crosscurrents. 2011. University of Toronto Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/edited_volume/book/106303. The Struggle for National Rights (1937). Toronto; Buffalo, NY; London. 978-0-8020-9134-5. 209. 1.
  7. Seth J. Frantzman. Benjamin W. Glueckstadt. Ruth Kark. The Anglican Church in Palestine and Israel: Colonialism, Arabization and Land Ownership. Middle Eastern Studies. 47. 1. 2011. 107,123. 10.1080/00263201003590482. 144408286.
  8. News: Matiel E.T. Mogannam. 23 February 2024. The Washington Post. 12 August 1992. .