Special Issue

Between ‘Central’ and ‘Marginal’: Three Syrian Women’s Journals of the 1920s, Beirut and Damascus

---

Abstract

In the 1920s, around a dozen women’s journals were published in Beirut, Damascus, and other more peripheral cities of Greater Syria (Bilād al-Shām). Arabic women-edited journals addressing a primarily female readership had been on the market for some time, since 1892 in Egypt and 1910 in Syria. Nevertheless, they often expressed the need to promote or even justify the very existence of women’s journals and the active role of women in the press. This article discusses how far it makes sense to use the concepts ‘centre’ vs. ‘periphery’, or ‘mainstream’ vs. ‘marginal’, with regard to Syrian women’s magazines during this period of profound political and social transformation. While women’s journals are usually perceived as marginal, compared to ‘mainstream’ or ‘general interest’ journals speaking to a mainly male audience, the three journals discussed in this article partly addressed a broader readership of both genders, and some of the most prominent intellectuals of the time regularly contributed to them. Examining a broad range of criteria that could define a journal’s position in society and the periodical market, I argue that these periodicals cannot be clearly defined by these binary terms but are more adequately described as situated between the two poles. Women’s journals are thus discussed as a form of social and cultural collective practice, used by editors and authors to work against their marginalized position and assert their agency, stance, and right to participation.

Keywords: women’s journals, Syria, al-ʿArūs, Mīnarvā, al-Marʾa al-Jadīda, Mārī ʿAjamī, Mārī Yannī, Jūliyā Ṭuʿma Dimashqiyya, Beirut, Damascus

How to Cite:

Winckler, B., (2024) “Between ‘Central’ and ‘Marginal’: Three Syrian Women’s Journals of the 1920s, Beirut and Damascus”, Journal of European Periodical Studies 9(1), 49–70. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/jeps.89656