Mogannam, Matiel
MOGANNAM, MATIEL
Palestinian feminist (c.1900–1992), born in Lebanon, raised in the United States. She married Mogannam Ilyas Mogannam, a native of Jerusalem who had emigrated to the United States, and returned with him to Jerusalem in the 1920s. She became active in the Palestinian women's movement and was a founder and officer of both the Arab Women's Executive (AWE) and the Arab Women's Association (AWA) in 1929. These groups were begun in the wake of the Western Wall riots and were nationalist as well as feminist organizations. Their primary purposes were to promote the education of girls and the social and economic status of women, but they actively protested the British Mandate and promoted support for the Palestinian national cause. During a demonstration sponsored by the Arab Women's Association in 1933, Matiel Mogannam, a Christian, spoke publicly at the Dome of the Rock, warning of the danger to Palestinians of Zionist immigration. During the 1936–1939 revolt, the AWA provided support for the rebels and aided prisoners. Mogannam was the author of The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem, published in 1937 in London, and of numerous articles in the Palestinian press. She died in the United States.