Arab Women’s Organizations: Conference Proceedings
The 1938 Eastern Women’s Congress for the Defense of Palestine
“The Arab Woman and the case of Palestine” Eastern Women’s Congress. Cairo, 1938. Held at the headquarters of the Egyptian Feminist Union in Cairo. From 15-18 October, 1938. For the Defense of Palestine. [The seal of the conference]Each Authenticated Copy has to be stamped with the Seal of the Conference. 100 piasters per copy. To benefit victims of Palestine. al-Matba'a al-'Asriyya bi Misr.
Stamp prepared by the Egyptian Women’s Union.
Image of front cover: The Arab Woman and the case of Palestine at the Eastern Women’s Congress in Cairo.
Welcome, for the pain which unites us and awakens us to our duty toward our sister Palestine which has become the highest example for pride, courage, and true nationalism, so welcome to you in the arena of struggle; and I promise you, ladies, that I will work with sincerity in your ranks to serve this just cause with all my strength and conviction. Huda al-Shaarawi’s speech at the Eastern Women’s Congress. ¹
A large audience of women attendees at the opening session of the conference.
The 1938 Eastern Women’s Congress in Cairo titled, The Arab Woman and the Case of Palestine held between October 15-18th at the Egyptian Feminist Union headquarters and attended by over 200 people, is recognized as an important milestone in the organizational structure of the cross-regional Arab feminist movement ². During the period of the early and mid-20th century and with the emergence of the Palestinian struggle, in the words of Maymneh al-Qassam’s speech at the 1938 congress, “because this piece of land [Palestine] is the beating heart to the rest of the Arab world,” ³ a formalized organizational commitment to cross-regional alliance developed on larger scale than previously seen before. As Nawar Golley Hassan has noted in her canonical article “Is feminism relevant to Arab woman”: “the truth of the matter is that the immediate boundaries between any two Arab countries are the result of the Western imperialist policy of ‘divide and rule’.” ⁴ While feminism(s) from the Arab world can be traced much further back in history, in many ways, the pan-Arab feminist movement of the 20th-century was born out of staunch resistance to capitalist imperialism and Zionist settler-colonialism, a defining principle that is often erased in colonial and divisive representations of Arab women.
The Eastern Women’s Congress for the Defense of Palestine was attended by delegates from Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. The delegates represented the women’s movements in their respective countries. The conference proceedings book was published by the Egyptian Feminist Union in 1939. The book includes the itinerary, speeches, resolutions, list of attendees, telegrams related to the conference, copies of press coverage, and photographs. There were 200 copies printed, each hand-signed by Egyptian Feminist Union president, Huda al-Shaarawi. While the conference took place between October 15 and 18, other site visits (e.g. textile factory and Egyptian Museum) and administrative events were planned for the delegates until October 24th. The conference concluded with a special concert by the renowned singer Umm Kulthum, held at the Egyptian Feminist Union on Monday October 24th at 9pm. The contents of this important book provide us with rich historical context and information on the ideas of feminists, their visions for the future, and their calls to action on the problem of Zionism and its expansion in Palestine.
Excerpt from Miss Maymneh al-Qassam’s speech, daughter of first Martyr of Palestine Izzeddine al-Qassam.
My ladies, would you allow me to speak? I, an Arab woman whose father is a noble sheikh, a scholar of religion with students and followers of whom he created a league of fighters and led them to the forests of Ya'bad and the hills of Jenin. There he stood in the face of an army of oppressors and chanted with his brothers "God is great. Steady. Steady. Die for Palestine!" It was only an hour before my father and anchor the Sheikh 'Izzeddine al-Qassam was felled by injustice and aggression, his white turban soaking with his blood, watering the Tree of Independence in Palestine's earth. History says: 'Izzeddine was the revolution's first martyr... He knocked on the door of freedom with his bloodied hand. His martyrdom was the epitome of sacrifice. As for his students and followers, some followed in death while others waited without waver. Indeed, some were engulfed in the suffering of death and fought bloody battles while he remains in the mountains, valleys and caves, wielding his weapons without waver until Palestine is free from the conspirators' trap. - Maymneh al-Qassam’s speech. ⁵
Students of the Egyptian Women’s Unions perform “Palestine” anthem.
The fact that the largest organized gathering of Arab women in Egypt occurred on the occasion of the defense of Palestine from the British mandate and the Zionist incursion exemplifies the inherent connection between the development of Arab feminism, as a movement, and anti-colonial struggle. Non-Palestinian Arab women considered the struggles within their own countries as “indivisible” ⁶ from the struggle for Palestine’s liberation, an absolute and guiding principle on which Arab feminism, as a project and movement, is crystalized.
Under Ottoman rule and especially in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Arab women’s movement had focused its efforts on strengthening Arabic-language education which was threatened by Turkification, although their efforts were not limited to this. The focus on Arabic education was a central feature of the nationalist project of Arab self-determination, this continued during the 20th century and with the onset of French and British imperialist invasions under the colonial ‘mandate system’, in which women were at the forefront of the liberation struggle of their countries. ⁷ For example, delegate Nazik al-Abid, who attended the 1938 congress, was a prominent figure in Syria and Lebanon who was exiled by the Ottomans due to her activism and who, amongst her many achievements, fought against French forces in the battle of Maysaloun. Many similar stories can be said about other delegates who attended the congress, as in the case of Sadhij Nassar’s revolutionary activism in Palestine. By the time of the 1938 gathering, delegates had already been well-experienced in the nationalist and cross-regional feminist struggles of their countries. During this period, women’s organizations in Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon had each conducted multiple conferences to discuss their women’s movements and the anti-colonial struggle, they were involved in eleven Eastern Women conferences between the years 1928 and 1944.
The initial meeting to elect the conference bureau, pg. 29
The Congress was originally proposed to be held in the village of Bludan in Syria, as the Arab National Congress had organized a meeting there, and was to include Eastern women’s organizations, namely from India, Iran, and surrounding countries. According to feminist historian Margot Badran, Arab women’s proposal to hold an Eastern Women’s conference in Syria was intercepted by the British authorities who “moved to stop nationalist cooperation between Indian and Arab women” and crushed plans for the Syrian meeting. ⁸ Not being able to conduct the conference in Syria, the leaders of Arab Women’s Unions from Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq met in the city of Beirut, Lebanon in July of 1938 and formally decided to request that Huda al-Shaarawi serve as the official representative of Arab women’s calls for the defense of Palestine at the league of nations, the International Alliance of Women, and other international arenas; Huda al-Shaarawi was President of the Egyptian Feminist Union. ⁹ This decision culminated in the 1938 Eastern Women’s Congress in Cairo which included delegates from multiple women’s unions, the largest delegation being from Palestine. ¹⁰
Delegates arriving at the office of the Egyptian Women’s Union, where the conference was held, pg. 27.
The conference took place during the 1936-1939 Great Revolt in Palestine, a three-year uprising calling for the end and complete halt of the British mandate system, the Zionist invasion, and land-theft. The Revolt involved a nation-wide general strike and mass-boycott campaigns. Palestinian women played a central role in the mobilization of the revolt. ¹¹
Members of the Nablus Women’s Committee who mobilized during the revolt. Their worked included house-to-house visitations, gathering and distributing funds to their community.
At the conference, Palestinian delegates presented first-hand accounts of the struggles they were facing during the Revolt and they denounced the foreign press because of its misrepresentation of the “pure-hearted fighters” and “noble innocents” of the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt in Palestine, described by the British and American press as “thieves, bandits and scamps.” ¹² Delegate Matiel Mogannam shows how the Zionist organization manipulated the narrative of the events of the 1936 Great revolt as a way to further promote Jewish settlement to Palestine. ¹³
The problem of Zionist propaganda also came up in the following 1944 conference. In response to U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s request that the women’s conference “work for peace”, the Arab Women’s Union’s President responded by saying, “I answer her from this podium that working to bring justice to the Arabs of Palestine is one of the strongest pillars of peace in the Arab East.” On behalf of the Union, Huda al-Shaarawi sent the following telegram to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt:
The [second] Arab Feminist Conference [1944] convening in Cairo and representing the women of Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Trans-Jordan protests all American propaganda in favor of Zionism and any assistance to it to realize its illegitimate hopes in Palestine, which is indisputably the legitimate country of the Arabs. ¹⁴
It is within this context during the years of the 1936 Great Revolt and the years preceding the 1948 Nakba genocide that Arab feminism, as a consolidated movement, was launched. The Women’s Union’s resolutions denouncing Zionist propaganda and the mention of Zionist propaganda makes clear its significance and the urgent need for a response, as it still does. The fact that the issue of orientalist media came up as a topic in the conference is significant because it shows us that the issue of Europe’s weaponization of media to justify Zionism and colonialism in Palestine has been something that the Arab feminists recognized and actively worked against; a central historical fact that requires or active attention and mobilization.
Photographs of Arab Matryrs, killed by English canons and bombs, page 276. Top right to bottom left: Ibrahim Al-Ammouri, Sheikh Farhan Al-Saadi, Khalil Bidawiyyah, Noah Ibrahim.
The bombing the village of Qula, near the village of Lidd, by British forces, pg. 75.
A British military tank leading cars carrying British soldiers during their attack and raid of a Palestinian village, pg. 185.
Armed Jewish militias destroying a Palestinian village and burning it, pg. 273.
The congress passed 22 resolutions, including calling for: “voiding the Balfour declaration”, “demanding stop to Jewish immigration to Palestine”, “refusal to partition Palestine”, Allied forces ‘rectification’ of the problem, “release of all political prisoners and detainees”, a denouncement of “the foreign press campaigns that are biased against pure-hearted fighters”, “freedom returned to homeless and displaced”, communicating with leaders of the world to “protest against the politics of oppression and cruelty in the Holy Land”, and “support for national products and businesses over foreign ones.” ¹⁵
They agreed on an organizational structure which included creating Egyptian, Palestinian, Iraqi, Syrian, and Lebanese committees with Egypt being the central one. Struggling for anti-colonial independence, with this network, each of the committees were responsible for implementing and acting on the resolutions of the conference. The group reconvened in December of 1944 (Cairo) under the title, the “Arab Women’s Union.” ¹⁶ The regional Arab women’s 1938 congress followed the Palestinian Arab Women’s 1929 Congress in Jerusalem which gathered 300 people, and the 1932 congress which concluded in the writing of a memorandum to the League of Nations and the British Government addressing British colonialism and the Zionist policy.
The events of the 1938 Eastern Conference for the defense of Palestine reveal to us that the Arab feminist project of the 1930s was a project guided by multiple feminist actors across different cities who considered the liberation of Palestinian land as foundational to its existence. Importantly, the resolutions implemented at the conference today apply today as they did in 1938.
Today, amidst the Zionist aspiration for “Greater Israel” and the Zionist genocide in Gaza, and war on Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the imperialist-led war in Sudan, strengthening cross-regional solidarity and anti-colonial consciousness by drawing on our past has never been more urgent. ¹⁶
Our task, 86 years later, is to uphold the mandates and work of our predecessors and to struggle together until justice and liberation are achieved.
“The Arab nation heeds the call of the Holy Land” pg. 195.
To cite this page:
Karim, Mariam “The 1938 Eastern Women’s Congress for the Defense of Palestine: anti-colonial genealogies of Arab feminism” Nasawiyyah: Arab Media History. May, 2025.
References
[1] Egyptian Feminist Union. The Eastern Women’s Conference: The Arab Woman and the Case of Palestine (1938). EFU Press. An English translation of the proceedings was conducted in 2020 by Deema Nasser and Rifa’at Abou-El-Haj. Quote on page 17 of the translation.
[2] Badran, Margot, and American Council of Learned Societies. Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1995.
[3] Quotation from a speech delivered by Miss Maymneh, daughter of the first Arab martyr in Palestine, Sheikh Izzeddine al-Qassam in 1938. Egyptian Feminist Union. Proceedings, Arabic, pg. 151, English translation on page 77.
[4] Golley, Nawar Al-Hassan. “Is Feminism Relevant to Arab Women?” Third World Quarterly 25, no. 3 (2004): 532.
[5] Quotation from a speech delivered by Miss Maymneh, daughter of the first Arab martyr in Palestine, Sheikh Izzeddine al-Qassam in 1938. Egyptian Feminist Union. Proceedings, Arabic, pg. 151, English translation on page 77.
[6] Abdulhadi, Rabab. “Justice is Indivisible.” Lecture on Audacy (September 5, 2020). https://www.audacy.com/podcast/solidarity-radio-3020b/episodes/justice-is-indivisible-d2609
[7] Egyptian Feminist Union. Proceedings (1938), 3. In 1920, the League of Nations assigned Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt under British control and Lebanon and Syria under French control. The League of Nations decision followed the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement in which the Middle East was split up into individual nation states. See: Thompson, Elizabeth F. How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs: The Syrian Arab Congress of 1920 and the Destruction of Its Historic Liberal-Islamic Alliance. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, (2020) 430–431.
[8] Badran, Margot. “The Widening Circle,” 226–228.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Egyptian Feminist Union. Eastern Women’s Conference Proceedings, [Arabic] pg. 38.
[11] Mogannam, Matiel. The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem. Herbert Joseph Limited, 1937. Highlight: “Great Arab Revolt, 1936–1939.” Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question: https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/158/great-arab-revolt-1936-1939
[12] Egyptian Feminist Union. Eastern Women’s Conference Proceedings, [English Translation] pg. 86.
[13] Mogannam, The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem, pg. 300.
[14] Badran, “Widening Circle,” pg. 241.
[15] Egyptian Feminist Union. Eastern Women’s Conference Proceedings, [English Translation] pg. 86–88.
[16] Ghaddar, J.J. “Resistance Archives in the Shadow of Genocide.” Briarpatch Magazine (July 23, 2024).