Matiel Mogannam’s The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem: A Look at Publishing Censorship in 1930’s England

The phenomenon of colonial censorship against Palestinian voices has been happening for over 80 years. In 1936, Matiel Mogannam’s book, The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem, was rejected by a renowned English publishing house over reasons that it was “propaganda.” The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem (published in 1937) traces, in detail, the history of the Arab and Palestinian women’s movements in the context of the Palestinian nationalist struggle.

Through a comparative reading of archival records on Mogannam’s book, this talk argues that the English publisher rejected the book because of its mobilizing potential and contribution to expanding Palestinian and Arab women’s anticolonial knowledge in the Anglo-speaking world. This historical account detailing the internal conversation between a private British publisher and a renowned British-Zionist thinker in 1936, along with their covert collaboration to obstruct the publication of a book on Palestinian women, is noteworthy. This colloquium sheds light on the underlying factors shaping the reception and circulation of Palestinian women’s media in England during the first half of the 20th century.