From the Holy Land to the New World (and Back): Transnational Arab Feminism in the Early Twentieth Century
Keywords:
Transnational feminism, Arab American women, Syrian immigration, Gender roles, Missionary influence, Early twentieth centuryAbstract
This article analyzes the emergence of a transnational Arab feminist network between the United States and the Arab world during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The paper explores how Syrian American women, influenced by American Protestant missionaries, challenged traditional gender roles within the diaspora and became active agents in forming this early feminist movement. The author contends that economic improvement was not the sole incentive for migration but rather a combination of religious conflict, social constraints, and educational opportunities provided by missionaries. This study examines the political and cultural context that facilitated connections between the Old and New Worlds, focusing on the integration process of lower-class immigrant women and the emergence of feminist consciousness among middle-class Syrian American women. The article demonstrates how Syrian American feminism reflected broader feminist movements in the Middle East during the Arab Renaissance.(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)
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