From early pioneers to modern-day revolutionaries: the resilience and centrality of feminists in the Palestinian liberation movement
Women have been central to every phase of Palestinian resistance. Here Nada Elia recovers the long-suppressed story of Palestinian women’s organizing from 1929 to the present. Far from being a Western import, local feminism consistently linked personal empowerment with collective liberation, anticolonial struggle with social transformation. In the time of the Mandate, Matiel Mogannam confronted British imperialism through the Arab Women’s Congress. In the following decades, Camille Odeh built Arab American solidarity networks. Their legacy continues today in the work of contemporary activists fighting femicide and pinkwashing throughout the world.
Falastiniyyat rescues Palestinian feminism from obscurity. Furthermore, Elia argues that these activists were pioneers of a uniquely intersectional, antiimperial feminist politics.
About the Author
Nada Elia is a diasporic Palestinian scholar and activist whose work, both in the classroom and the streets, focuses on exposing and redressing structural systems of oppression. She is the author of Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts: Feminism, Inter/Nationalism, and Palestine. Nada is a founding member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective, and currently serves on its Coordinating Committee.
What People Are Saying
"Provides a valuable addition to knowledge about Palestinian women's movements in the national struggle for Palestinian liberation. Informative and well researched." Ghada Karmi, author of In Search of Fatima
"A paradigm-shifting book. Essential reading for classrooms, activists, and anyone interested in Palestinian liberation, Palestinian feminism, or global and decolonial feminist movements." Dr. Nadine Naber, Co-Author of Radical Mothering
"Elia weaves narrative, urgency, and intimacy spanning a century and continents to provide a remarkable history of Palestinian feminism. Elia’s own life in struggle makes this text vibrate, its characters jumping from the pages, beseeching us to join them in their noble and unyielding commitment to our collective liberation. To free the land and everyone on it." Noura Erakat, Professor and Author of Justice for Some
"Never more needed than now, Falastiniyyat is a beautifully written, essential text for everyone in search of peace and justice in our time." Lynne Segal, author of Lean on Me
"Readers looking for a women-centric introduction to the history of Palestinian resistance will value this." Publishers Weekly
