Matiel Mogannam

Matiel Mogannam (متيل مغنم; 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. 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. The book was first published by the London-based Herbert Joseph in 1937. It is the only book about the women's movement during the Mandate period.

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

Personal life and death
She married Mogannam Mogannam in the USA. He was a lawyer and was a member of the Arab Anglican family from Jerusalem. 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.