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Liat Kozma

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Faculty Member

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My publications deal with feminism in contemporary Morocco, marginalized women in nineteenth-century Egypt, and medical discourses on sexuality in both the Jewish Yishuv and in early twentieth-century Arab societies. I also published several articles about the traffic in drugs, and particularly cannabis, in the early twentieth-century Middle East. I am particularly interested in the international movement of people, merchandise and ideas during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire, and the interwar Middle East.

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Bar-Ilan University

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hamutal Gabayev-Davidi

Tel Aviv University

Danielle Heiblum

Goldsmiths, University of London

Oded Heilbronner

Roni Mikel-Arieli

Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Liat Steir-Livny

Sapir Academic College

Tel Aviv University

Achinoam Aldouby

UC Berkeley

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Books by Liat Kozma

PERSONAL STATUS AND GENDER: PALESTINIAN WOMEN IN ISRAEL

by Heba Yazbak and Liat Kozma

Global Women, Colonial Ports Prostitution in the Interwar Middle East

Policing Egyptian women : sex, law, and medicine in Khedival Egypt

Nashim kotvot hisṭoryah: feminizm ṿe-shinui ḥevrati be-Maroḳo

Edited Volumes by Liat Kozma

A Global Middle East: Mobility, Materiality and Culture in the Modern Age, 1880-1940

The League of Nations' Work on Social Issues Visions, Endeavours and Experiments

by Liat Kozma and Davide Rodogno

Articles by Liat Kozma

Monopoly on doubt: Post-mortem examinations in Israel, 1950s-1980s

This article examines the durability of high postmortem examination rates in Israel between the 1... more This article examines the durability of high postmortem examination rates in Israel between the 1950s-1980s. Previous studies overlooked the issue of medical authority and the social history of autopsy, focusing on policy, technological development, and conflict between science and religion. By contrast, our analysis brings together the medical interest in unlimited research of dead bodies and the power relations between doctors and subaltern groups in Israel. Based on the Israeli State Archives, the Hebrew University Archives, and the daily press, we argue that medical biopolitical aspirations and the public shaped the history of postmortem examinations in Israel. High rates were embedded in the medical construction of doubt regarding the cause of death that only physicians could resolve by autopsy. Civilian protests led to a temporary decrease in the 1960s, while political and medical intervention brought about a gradual resurgence in postmortem rates in the 1980s.

הארכיון ומקצועה של ההיסטוריונית

זמנים, 2023

כאורה זהו סיפור פשוט — היסטוריונים לומדים על העבר בעזרת המקורות הנמצאים בארכיון. אך למעשה יש תמיד... more כאורה זהו סיפור פשוט — היסטוריונים לומדים על העבר בעזרת המקורות הנמצאים בארכיון. אך למעשה יש תמיד פער בלתי נמנע בין מה ש"באמת קרה" ובין מה שהוחלט לתעד (ועל ידי מי), מה שהשתמר וכיצד יגיע החומר לידיה של ההיסטוריונית הנכנסת בפתחו של הארכיון. גם הכניסה אל הארכיון מלווה לעיתים בטקסים ובריטואלים, הנדרשים כדי להגיע לאוצרות בלומים. ליאת קוזמא חוזרת בקצרה לתובנותיה על עבודת ההיסטוריונית בארכיון ותוהה כיצד משך הזמן, הטכנולוגיות ומגפת הקורונה השפיעו על עבודתן של ההיסטוריוניות ועל הממשק שלהן עם הארכיונים ושינו אותם.

חבר הלאומים, הגירה וזנות: לשורשי המאבק בסחר בנשים

חברה, משפט ותרבות, 2023

בשנת 1921 הוקמה ועדת חבר הלאומים למאבק בסחר בנשים. היא פיקחה על יישום אמנות בינלאומיות, קראה דוחו... more בשנת 1921 הוקמה ועדת חבר הלאומים למאבק בסחר בנשים. היא פיקחה
על יישום אמנות בינלאומיות, קראה דוחות שנתיים של המדינות החתומות,
הפיקה דוחות עצמאיים ושלחה משלחות בדיקה למיפוי הסחר. מאמר זה
עוקב אחרי אופני פעולתה של הוועדה ומתמקד בדיוניה ובממצאיה על
אודות מרחבים קולוניאליים באסיה ובצפון אפריקה. טענתו המרכזית היא
שלמרות החלפת המינוח מ"עבדות לבנה", שהיה שגור במאה התשע עשרה
ובראשית המאה העשרים, ל"סחר בנשים וילדים", שכלל גם נשים לא־לבנות,
בפועל לא היו לוועדת חבר הלאומים נגד סחר בנשים ולמשלחות הבדיקה
שלה הכלים לבחון את גורלן של נשים העוסקות בזנות בחברות נכבשות.
משלחות בדיקה, דוחות ודיונים שהתקיימו בוועדה התמקדו בפועל בנשים
אירופאיות בקולוניות, ודחקו לשוליים את גורלן של נשים לא־לבנות, ובכלל
זה נשים מקומיות ומהגרות שהיו נתונות למשטר של זנות ממוסדת שנכפתה
על ידי המעצמות הקולוניאליות. מי שייצגו את הקולוניות בדיוני הוועדה
היו תמיד נציגי המעצמה הקולוניאלית, אשר בפועל ייצגו את האינטרסים
של המעצמה וביקשו להגן על המוניטין שלה ועל האינטרסים של קהילת
המתיישבים. כאשר הוצגו האינטרסים של האוכלוסיות הנכבשות, הם היו
עטופים בשורה של הנחות גזעיות ותרבותיות באשר למיניות לא־לבנה,
שביקשו להחריג נשים לא־לבנות מהגנת האמנות נגד סחר בנשים. המגבלה
המרכזית של הוועדה, אם כן, הייתה ונותרה הבעיה הקולוניאלית של חבר
הלאומים — כל דיון בחברות הנכבשות תווך באופן בלעדי על ידי נקודת
המבט של המעצמה הקולוניאלית, ונשים לא לבנות נותרו בשוליו.

Arap Coğrafyasının Doğusunda Kadın Doktorlar 1880-1950

by Liat Kozma and Nicole Khayat

TOPLUMSAL TARİH, 2023

19. YY SONUNDA KADINLAR ÇOK AZ SAYIDA TIP OKULUNA KABUL EDİLEBİLİYORDU, ORTA DOĞU’DAKİ OKULLARDAN... more 19. YY SONUNDA KADINLAR ÇOK AZ SAYIDA
TIP OKULUNA KABUL EDİLEBİLİYORDU, ORTA
DOĞU’DAKİ OKULLARDAN HİÇBİRİ İSE KADIN
ÖĞRENCİLERİ KABUL ETMİYORDU. KENDİ
ÜLKELERİNDE TIP EĞİTİMİ ALMA ŞANSI
OLMAYAN AMA YİNE DE BELLİ İMKANLARA
SAHİP OLAN BİRKAÇ KADIN ÖĞRENCİ,
EĞİTİM ALIP HİZMET ETMEK İÇİN GERİ
DÖNMEK ÜZERE AVRUPA VE AMERİKA’DAKİ
TIP FAKÜLTELERİNE GİTTİLER.

THE BEERSHEBA EXPERIMENT AND THE MEDICAL FIELD IN ISRAEL, 1974–1981

Korot, 2021

Previously unpublished texts and documents as well as short papers will also be considered for pu... more Previously unpublished texts and documents as well as short papers will also be considered for publication. Manuscripts must be submitted in duplicate, together with a disc mentioning the program used, with double spacing and wide margins. The author should retain a copy. The Editors reserve the right to make stylistic or bibliographical emendations. Manuscripts should be sent to Prof.

PALESTINIAN DOCTORS UNDER THE BRITISH MANDATE: THE FORMATION OF A PROFESSION

by Jonathan Furas and Liat Kozma

IJMES, 2020

During the final years of Ottoman rule and the three decades of British rule, Palestine witnessed... more During the final years of Ottoman rule and the three decades of British rule, Palestine witnessed the emergence of a community of professionally trained Palestinian Arab doctors. This study traces the evolution of the medical profession in Palestine against the background of the shifting cultural and symbolic capital of an expanding urban middle class and the educational possibilities that enabled this development. Palestinian Arab doctors are examined through a number of interconnected prisms: their activity in social, political, and professional regional networks, their modus operandi under British colonial rule, their response to Zionism and its accompanying influx of immigrant Jewish doctors, and their ability to mobilize collectively under a shared national vision. "During my last visit to my homeland, I sensed a new spirit, a spirit of progress and awakening that made me proud of my citizenship, and the conference I am currently attending sets a fine example for this awakening." 1 This testimony was given by a Palestinian who visited his homeland after three decades in the diaspora. The conference he mentioned was the first Congress of Arab Doctors in Palestine, convened in Haifa in June 1933. Thirty-five physicians attended, over one-third from Haifa, alongside representatives from Jaffa, Jerusalem, Safed, Tulkarm, Shafa 'Amr, Nablus, and Nazareth. A similar number of doctors who could not attend had sent letters of empowerment to the delegates, bringing the total number of delegates and supporters to seventy-five. It would have been impossible to imagine an event such as this thirty years earlier, when the anonymous attendee had left Palestine. Moreover, the challenges and demands faced by this community could have hardly been imagined at the turn of the century. The small community of Arabic-speaking, university-trained doctors numbered roughly twenty on the eve of World War I, but expanded more than tenfold by the end of the British Mandate in 1948. The present study historicizes this community of Palestinian doctors by tracing their sociocultural background, training, and modus ope-randi under British colonialism; their acculturation to professional, institutional, and political life in Palestine; and their engagement with the Zionist challenge. The research

Politics of Hospitality: African Students at the Hebrew University Medical School in the 1960s

by Liat Kozma and Benny Nuriely

Journal of Historical Sociology, 2021

From 1961-1965, the Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem taught four cohorts of m... more From 1961-1965, the Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem taught four cohorts of medical students from developing countries, mostly African. This article explores the program through the theory of hospitality. First, we find that hospitality is constructed and enabled by international interests. Second, those interests build a status which has unexpected consequences that reveal sorts of hosts, welcoming and xenophobic. Third, as an outcome of the international structure of student exchange, the guests' response to the terms of hospitality was mitigated by their privileged status as international medical students. On the one hand, they appreciated Israel as a model of post-colonial state-building; on the other, they criticized the racist reactions to their presence.

Gendered Struggles over the Medical Profession in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies

Historians of the professionalization of medicine in colonized regions, including the Middle East... more Historians of the professionalization of medicine in colonized regions, including the Middle East, have mostly focused on male practitioners, whereas histories of women in the medical professions are mostly centered in Western societies. The present issue examines histories of female medical practitioners by looking at case studies spanning the twentieth century from Algeria, Palestine, Israel, Iran, and Iraq. The introduction to this issue offers an overview of existing scholarship and charts sources and directions for future research and historical actors yet to be studied. The articles examine microlevel contact zones, in which women’s agency shaped and was shaped by colonial and postcolonial encounters, decolonization, and the formation of national professions. They reveal tensions within the medical sphere, between men and women, foreign and local, colonizer and colonized.

Women’s Migration for Prostitution in the interwar Middle East and North Africa

Journal of Women's History, 2016

This article examines the migration of women for prostitution around the Mediterranean Sea, parti... more This article examines the migration of women for prostitution around the Mediterranean Sea, particularly to and within the Middle East and North Africa, in the interwar period. Reading League of Nations’ reports on traffic in women and children along with other published and archival sources, it situates women’s mobility within three significant waves of migration at the time: of south European men and women to Europe’s colonies in North Africa; of east European Jews westwards and southwards; and of Syrians outside of Mt. Lebanon. It shows how women’s migration can be explained and traced by following such temporary travelers as tourists, sailors, and soldiers and such more permanent migrants as settlers, refugees, and labor migrants. By using the category of migration, this article argues that “traffic in women” is insufficient as an analytical category in accounting for the geography of prostitution and prostitutes’ international mobility in the interwar Mediterranean.

Between Colonial, National, and International Medicine: The Case of Bejel

Bulletin of the history of medicine, 2017

In the 1920s and 1930s, doctors stationed in the Middle East and North Africa debated whether bej... more In the 1920s and 1930s, doctors stationed in the Middle East and North Africa debated whether bejel, a form of endemic syphilis, was an Arab version of syphilis, or a separate disease altogether. Using their clinical experience in the region, they tried to weave this unfamiliar phenomenon into a civilizational narrative, which placed European civilization at the top of a hierarchy. The assumption was that there was something inherent to Islamic societies and their hygienic habits that accounted for this difference. After World War II, the eradication of bejel was declared to be one of the objectives of both the Iraqi government and the newly founded World Health Organization. Examining the postwar life of bejel, I question how colonial legacies affected postcolonial and international medical theories and practices, on both national and international levels.

“Why Don’t You Go to Nursing School?” Hebrew University Medical School as a Gendered Experience, 1950–1970

by Liat Kozma and Benny Nuriely

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, 2022

The article analyzes the gendered experience at Hebrew University Medical School in its first two... more The article analyzes the gendered experience at Hebrew University Medical School in its first two decades, 1950–70. Contrary to earlier studies on women in medicine, which focused on immigrant doctors to late Ottoman and mandatory Palestine, gendering the future cadre of doctors in post-1948 Israel has not been discussed. Based on archival documents, newspapers of the period, and interviews with the school’s graduates, the article argues that the school maintained a consistent though informal quota policy, which also differentiated between country-born and immigrant students. It examines students’ interactions with the school, beginning with their decision to apply for medical school and going through the interview process, the experience of student life, and their attempts to balance medical school with marriage and motherhood.

Medicine and Arabic literary production in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century

by Nicole Khayat and Liat Kozma

The British Journal for the History of Science, 2022

The selection of nineteenth-century Arabic texts on medical education, medicine and health demons... more The selection of nineteenth-century Arabic texts on medical education, medicine and health demonstrates the significant link between the revival of the Arabic language and literary culture of the nineteenth century, known as the nahda, and the introduction of medical education to the Ottoman Empire. These include doctor Ibrahim al-Najjar's autobiographical account of his studies in Cairo (1855), an article by doctor Amin Abi Khatir advising on the health and care of infants (1877), questions and answers in the major popular Arabic journals al-Hilal and al-Muqtataf (1877-1901) and an article about a new tuberculosis treatment by doctor Anisa Sayba'a (1903). Taken together they contribute to our understanding of the bottom-up production, reproduction and reception of global scientific knowledge, as well as to a social and intellectual history of science. We argue that the engagement with science during the nahda was a multi-vocal and dialogical process, in which doctors and patients, journal editors and their readers, negotiated the implications of scientific knowledge for their own lives and their own society. The texts of the original documents and their translations can be found in the supplementary material tab at

Gendered Struggles over the Medical Profession in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

by Nicole Khayat and Liat Kozma

Historians of the professionalization of medicine in colonized regions, including the Middle East... more Historians of the professionalization of medicine in colonized regions, including the Middle East, have mostly focused on male practitioners, whereas histories of women in the medical professions are mostly centered in Western societies. The present issue examines histories of female medical practitioners by looking at case studies spanning the twentieth century from Algeria, Palestine, Israel, Iran, and Iraq. The introduction to this issue offers an overview of existing scholarship and charts sources and directions for future research and historical actors yet to be studied. The articles examine microlevel contact zones, in which women's agency shaped and was shaped by colonial and postcolonial encounters, decolonization, and the formation of national professions. They reveal tensions within the medical sphere, between men and women, foreign and local, colonizer and colonized.

Introduction: Medical Mobilities in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

by Liat Kozma and Nicole Khayat

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

This themed section contributes to efforts to conceptualize medical mobility. It does so by obser... more This themed section contributes to efforts to conceptualize medical mobility. It does so by observing medical histories within the Middle East while following concrete movements. This focus on what moves and how, rather than on largely static and fixed units of analysis on where to, is central to the studies in this issue. The location of the Middle East, as a crossroad for imperial mobilities-is ideal for exploring transnational medical movements. Bringing together historians of the Middle East and North Africa, the articles explore intersections among medicine, health, and the body and histories of cross-regional mobility. This section spans the period from the early twentieth century to the 1970s. The articles are based on primary sources in Greek, Turkish, English, French, Spanish, and Arabic, located in the national archives of the UK, Israel, and Cyprus; in French diplomatic and military archives; and in the Overseas Nursing Association's publications.

PERSONAL STATUS AND GENDER: PALESTINIAN WOMEN IN ISRAEL

by Heba Yazbak and Liat Kozma

Global Women, Colonial Ports Prostitution in the Interwar Middle East

Policing Egyptian women : sex, law, and medicine in Khedival Egypt

Nashim kotvot hisṭoryah: feminizm ṿe-shinui ḥevrati be-Maroḳo

A Global Middle East: Mobility, Materiality and Culture in the Modern Age, 1880-1940

The League of Nations' Work on Social Issues Visions, Endeavours and Experiments

by Liat Kozma and Davide Rodogno

Monopoly on doubt: Post-mortem examinations in Israel, 1950s-1980s

This article examines the durability of high postmortem examination rates in Israel between the 1... more This article examines the durability of high postmortem examination rates in Israel between the 1950s-1980s. Previous studies overlooked the issue of medical authority and the social history of autopsy, focusing on policy, technological development, and conflict between science and religion. By contrast, our analysis brings together the medical interest in unlimited research of dead bodies and the power relations between doctors and subaltern groups in Israel. Based on the Israeli State Archives, the Hebrew University Archives, and the daily press, we argue that medical biopolitical aspirations and the public shaped the history of postmortem examinations in Israel. High rates were embedded in the medical construction of doubt regarding the cause of death that only physicians could resolve by autopsy. Civilian protests led to a temporary decrease in the 1960s, while political and medical intervention brought about a gradual resurgence in postmortem rates in the 1980s.

הארכיון ומקצועה של ההיסטוריונית

זמנים, 2023

כאורה זהו סיפור פשוט — היסטוריונים לומדים על העבר בעזרת המקורות הנמצאים בארכיון. אך למעשה יש תמיד... more כאורה זהו סיפור פשוט — היסטוריונים לומדים על העבר בעזרת המקורות הנמצאים בארכיון. אך למעשה יש תמיד פער בלתי נמנע בין מה ש"באמת קרה" ובין מה שהוחלט לתעד (ועל ידי מי), מה שהשתמר וכיצד יגיע החומר לידיה של ההיסטוריונית הנכנסת בפתחו של הארכיון. גם הכניסה אל הארכיון מלווה לעיתים בטקסים ובריטואלים, הנדרשים כדי להגיע לאוצרות בלומים. ליאת קוזמא חוזרת בקצרה לתובנותיה על עבודת ההיסטוריונית בארכיון ותוהה כיצד משך הזמן, הטכנולוגיות ומגפת הקורונה השפיעו על עבודתן של ההיסטוריוניות ועל הממשק שלהן עם הארכיונים ושינו אותם.

חבר הלאומים, הגירה וזנות: לשורשי המאבק בסחר בנשים

חברה, משפט ותרבות, 2023

בשנת 1921 הוקמה ועדת חבר הלאומים למאבק בסחר בנשים. היא פיקחה על יישום אמנות בינלאומיות, קראה דוחו... more בשנת 1921 הוקמה ועדת חבר הלאומים למאבק בסחר בנשים. היא פיקחה
על יישום אמנות בינלאומיות, קראה דוחות שנתיים של המדינות החתומות,
הפיקה דוחות עצמאיים ושלחה משלחות בדיקה למיפוי הסחר. מאמר זה
עוקב אחרי אופני פעולתה של הוועדה ומתמקד בדיוניה ובממצאיה על
אודות מרחבים קולוניאליים באסיה ובצפון אפריקה. טענתו המרכזית היא
שלמרות החלפת המינוח מ"עבדות לבנה", שהיה שגור במאה התשע עשרה
ובראשית המאה העשרים, ל"סחר בנשים וילדים", שכלל גם נשים לא־לבנות,
בפועל לא היו לוועדת חבר הלאומים נגד סחר בנשים ולמשלחות הבדיקה
שלה הכלים לבחון את גורלן של נשים העוסקות בזנות בחברות נכבשות.
משלחות בדיקה, דוחות ודיונים שהתקיימו בוועדה התמקדו בפועל בנשים
אירופאיות בקולוניות, ודחקו לשוליים את גורלן של נשים לא־לבנות, ובכלל
זה נשים מקומיות ומהגרות שהיו נתונות למשטר של זנות ממוסדת שנכפתה
על ידי המעצמות הקולוניאליות. מי שייצגו את הקולוניות בדיוני הוועדה
היו תמיד נציגי המעצמה הקולוניאלית, אשר בפועל ייצגו את האינטרסים
של המעצמה וביקשו להגן על המוניטין שלה ועל האינטרסים של קהילת
המתיישבים. כאשר הוצגו האינטרסים של האוכלוסיות הנכבשות, הם היו
עטופים בשורה של הנחות גזעיות ותרבותיות באשר למיניות לא־לבנה,
שביקשו להחריג נשים לא־לבנות מהגנת האמנות נגד סחר בנשים. המגבלה
המרכזית של הוועדה, אם כן, הייתה ונותרה הבעיה הקולוניאלית של חבר
הלאומים — כל דיון בחברות הנכבשות תווך באופן בלעדי על ידי נקודת
המבט של המעצמה הקולוניאלית, ונשים לא לבנות נותרו בשוליו.

Arap Coğrafyasının Doğusunda Kadın Doktorlar 1880-1950

by Liat Kozma and Nicole Khayat

TOPLUMSAL TARİH, 2023

19. YY SONUNDA KADINLAR ÇOK AZ SAYIDA TIP OKULUNA KABUL EDİLEBİLİYORDU, ORTA DOĞU’DAKİ OKULLARDAN... more 19. YY SONUNDA KADINLAR ÇOK AZ SAYIDA
TIP OKULUNA KABUL EDİLEBİLİYORDU, ORTA
DOĞU’DAKİ OKULLARDAN HİÇBİRİ İSE KADIN
ÖĞRENCİLERİ KABUL ETMİYORDU. KENDİ
ÜLKELERİNDE TIP EĞİTİMİ ALMA ŞANSI
OLMAYAN AMA YİNE DE BELLİ İMKANLARA
SAHİP OLAN BİRKAÇ KADIN ÖĞRENCİ,
EĞİTİM ALIP HİZMET ETMEK İÇİN GERİ
DÖNMEK ÜZERE AVRUPA VE AMERİKA’DAKİ
TIP FAKÜLTELERİNE GİTTİLER.

THE BEERSHEBA EXPERIMENT AND THE MEDICAL FIELD IN ISRAEL, 1974–1981

Korot, 2021

Previously unpublished texts and documents as well as short papers will also be considered for pu... more Previously unpublished texts and documents as well as short papers will also be considered for publication. Manuscripts must be submitted in duplicate, together with a disc mentioning the program used, with double spacing and wide margins. The author should retain a copy. The Editors reserve the right to make stylistic or bibliographical emendations. Manuscripts should be sent to Prof.

PALESTINIAN DOCTORS UNDER THE BRITISH MANDATE: THE FORMATION OF A PROFESSION

by Jonathan Furas and Liat Kozma

IJMES, 2020

During the final years of Ottoman rule and the three decades of British rule, Palestine witnessed... more During the final years of Ottoman rule and the three decades of British rule, Palestine witnessed the emergence of a community of professionally trained Palestinian Arab doctors. This study traces the evolution of the medical profession in Palestine against the background of the shifting cultural and symbolic capital of an expanding urban middle class and the educational possibilities that enabled this development. Palestinian Arab doctors are examined through a number of interconnected prisms: their activity in social, political, and professional regional networks, their modus operandi under British colonial rule, their response to Zionism and its accompanying influx of immigrant Jewish doctors, and their ability to mobilize collectively under a shared national vision. "During my last visit to my homeland, I sensed a new spirit, a spirit of progress and awakening that made me proud of my citizenship, and the conference I am currently attending sets a fine example for this awakening." 1 This testimony was given by a Palestinian who visited his homeland after three decades in the diaspora. The conference he mentioned was the first Congress of Arab Doctors in Palestine, convened in Haifa in June 1933. Thirty-five physicians attended, over one-third from Haifa, alongside representatives from Jaffa, Jerusalem, Safed, Tulkarm, Shafa 'Amr, Nablus, and Nazareth. A similar number of doctors who could not attend had sent letters of empowerment to the delegates, bringing the total number of delegates and supporters to seventy-five. It would have been impossible to imagine an event such as this thirty years earlier, when the anonymous attendee had left Palestine. Moreover, the challenges and demands faced by this community could have hardly been imagined at the turn of the century. The small community of Arabic-speaking, university-trained doctors numbered roughly twenty on the eve of World War I, but expanded more than tenfold by the end of the British Mandate in 1948. The present study historicizes this community of Palestinian doctors by tracing their sociocultural background, training, and modus ope-randi under British colonialism; their acculturation to professional, institutional, and political life in Palestine; and their engagement with the Zionist challenge. The research

Politics of Hospitality: African Students at the Hebrew University Medical School in the 1960s

by Liat Kozma and Benny Nuriely

Journal of Historical Sociology, 2021

From 1961-1965, the Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem taught four cohorts of m... more From 1961-1965, the Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem taught four cohorts of medical students from developing countries, mostly African. This article explores the program through the theory of hospitality. First, we find that hospitality is constructed and enabled by international interests. Second, those interests build a status which has unexpected consequences that reveal sorts of hosts, welcoming and xenophobic. Third, as an outcome of the international structure of student exchange, the guests' response to the terms of hospitality was mitigated by their privileged status as international medical students. On the one hand, they appreciated Israel as a model of post-colonial state-building; on the other, they criticized the racist reactions to their presence.

Gendered Struggles over the Medical Profession in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies

Historians of the professionalization of medicine in colonized regions, including the Middle East... more Historians of the professionalization of medicine in colonized regions, including the Middle East, have mostly focused on male practitioners, whereas histories of women in the medical professions are mostly centered in Western societies. The present issue examines histories of female medical practitioners by looking at case studies spanning the twentieth century from Algeria, Palestine, Israel, Iran, and Iraq. The introduction to this issue offers an overview of existing scholarship and charts sources and directions for future research and historical actors yet to be studied. The articles examine microlevel contact zones, in which women’s agency shaped and was shaped by colonial and postcolonial encounters, decolonization, and the formation of national professions. They reveal tensions within the medical sphere, between men and women, foreign and local, colonizer and colonized.

Women’s Migration for Prostitution in the interwar Middle East and North Africa

Journal of Women's History, 2016

This article examines the migration of women for prostitution around the Mediterranean Sea, parti... more This article examines the migration of women for prostitution around the Mediterranean Sea, particularly to and within the Middle East and North Africa, in the interwar period. Reading League of Nations’ reports on traffic in women and children along with other published and archival sources, it situates women’s mobility within three significant waves of migration at the time: of south European men and women to Europe’s colonies in North Africa; of east European Jews westwards and southwards; and of Syrians outside of Mt. Lebanon. It shows how women’s migration can be explained and traced by following such temporary travelers as tourists, sailors, and soldiers and such more permanent migrants as settlers, refugees, and labor migrants. By using the category of migration, this article argues that “traffic in women” is insufficient as an analytical category in accounting for the geography of prostitution and prostitutes’ international mobility in the interwar Mediterranean.

Between Colonial, National, and International Medicine: The Case of Bejel

Bulletin of the history of medicine, 2017

In the 1920s and 1930s, doctors stationed in the Middle East and North Africa debated whether bej... more In the 1920s and 1930s, doctors stationed in the Middle East and North Africa debated whether bejel, a form of endemic syphilis, was an Arab version of syphilis, or a separate disease altogether. Using their clinical experience in the region, they tried to weave this unfamiliar phenomenon into a civilizational narrative, which placed European civilization at the top of a hierarchy. The assumption was that there was something inherent to Islamic societies and their hygienic habits that accounted for this difference. After World War II, the eradication of bejel was declared to be one of the objectives of both the Iraqi government and the newly founded World Health Organization. Examining the postwar life of bejel, I question how colonial legacies affected postcolonial and international medical theories and practices, on both national and international levels.

“Why Don’t You Go to Nursing School?” Hebrew University Medical School as a Gendered Experience, 1950–1970

by Liat Kozma and Benny Nuriely

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, 2022

The article analyzes the gendered experience at Hebrew University Medical School in its first two... more The article analyzes the gendered experience at Hebrew University Medical School in its first two decades, 1950–70. Contrary to earlier studies on women in medicine, which focused on immigrant doctors to late Ottoman and mandatory Palestine, gendering the future cadre of doctors in post-1948 Israel has not been discussed. Based on archival documents, newspapers of the period, and interviews with the school’s graduates, the article argues that the school maintained a consistent though informal quota policy, which also differentiated between country-born and immigrant students. It examines students’ interactions with the school, beginning with their decision to apply for medical school and going through the interview process, the experience of student life, and their attempts to balance medical school with marriage and motherhood.

Medicine and Arabic literary production in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century

by Nicole Khayat and Liat Kozma

The British Journal for the History of Science, 2022

The selection of nineteenth-century Arabic texts on medical education, medicine and health demons... more The selection of nineteenth-century Arabic texts on medical education, medicine and health demonstrates the significant link between the revival of the Arabic language and literary culture of the nineteenth century, known as the nahda, and the introduction of medical education to the Ottoman Empire. These include doctor Ibrahim al-Najjar's autobiographical account of his studies in Cairo (1855), an article by doctor Amin Abi Khatir advising on the health and care of infants (1877), questions and answers in the major popular Arabic journals al-Hilal and al-Muqtataf (1877-1901) and an article about a new tuberculosis treatment by doctor Anisa Sayba'a (1903). Taken together they contribute to our understanding of the bottom-up production, reproduction and reception of global scientific knowledge, as well as to a social and intellectual history of science. We argue that the engagement with science during the nahda was a multi-vocal and dialogical process, in which doctors and patients, journal editors and their readers, negotiated the implications of scientific knowledge for their own lives and their own society. The texts of the original documents and their translations can be found in the supplementary material tab at

Gendered Struggles over the Medical Profession in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

by Nicole Khayat and Liat Kozma

Historians of the professionalization of medicine in colonized regions, including the Middle East... more Historians of the professionalization of medicine in colonized regions, including the Middle East, have mostly focused on male practitioners, whereas histories of women in the medical professions are mostly centered in Western societies. The present issue examines histories of female medical practitioners by looking at case studies spanning the twentieth century from Algeria, Palestine, Israel, Iran, and Iraq. The introduction to this issue offers an overview of existing scholarship and charts sources and directions for future research and historical actors yet to be studied. The articles examine microlevel contact zones, in which women's agency shaped and was shaped by colonial and postcolonial encounters, decolonization, and the formation of national professions. They reveal tensions within the medical sphere, between men and women, foreign and local, colonizer and colonized.

Introduction: Medical Mobilities in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

by Liat Kozma and Nicole Khayat

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

This themed section contributes to efforts to conceptualize medical mobility. It does so by obser... more This themed section contributes to efforts to conceptualize medical mobility. It does so by observing medical histories within the Middle East while following concrete movements. This focus on what moves and how, rather than on largely static and fixed units of analysis on where to, is central to the studies in this issue. The location of the Middle East, as a crossroad for imperial mobilities-is ideal for exploring transnational medical movements. Bringing together historians of the Middle East and North Africa, the articles explore intersections among medicine, health, and the body and histories of cross-regional mobility. This section spans the period from the early twentieth century to the 1970s. The articles are based on primary sources in Greek, Turkish, English, French, Spanish, and Arabic, located in the national archives of the UK, Israel, and Cyprus; in French diplomatic and military archives; and in the Overseas Nursing Association's publications.

Beyond borders: the Egyptian 1947 epidemic as a regional and international crisis

by Liat Kozma and Diane Samuels

This article examines the post-Second World War regionalization and internationalization of publi... more This article examines the post-Second World War regionalization and
internationalization of public health by focusing on the 1947 cholera
epidemic in Egypt. We argue, first, that for the Egyptian medical
profession, the epidemic served as an opportunity for both anticolonial
critique and soul-searching and self-criticism: it attested to
the poor medical condition of the Egyptian countryside and the work
required to ameliorate it. Second, we place the Egyptian epidemic
in its regional context. We show how travel restrictions affected
the mobility of people and merchandise between Egypt and its
neighbours, as newly formed borders were solidified, crossed or
transgressed. At the same time, the epidemic served as an opportunity
for Arab solidarity. Finally, since epidemic erupted during the short
term of the WHO’s Interim Commission, Egypt served as the WHO’s
first testing ground, helping to prove its capability to mobilize medical
assistance, disseminate medical alerts and negotiate the abolition of
quarantine restrictions. The epidemic, moreover, erupted against the
background of renegotiation of international sanitary conventions,
which historically placed cholera and the Muslim pilgrimage to the
Hejaz at their centre. The source of the epidemic in a British military
base and Egypt’s ability to contain the epidemic resonated with
on-going debates over international travel restriction, international
health policies and local sovereignty. The 1947 cholera epidemic
was thus, a defining moment in the emerging relationship between
international organizations and the decolonizing world.

הקדמה: ידע ציבורי במציאות משתנה, מתוך המזרח החדש, 2017

Between Port Cities: Women Travelling Alone around the Mediterranean

This article examines the migration of women for prostitution around the Mediterranean Sea, parti... more This article examines the migration of women for prostitution around the Mediterranean Sea, particularly to and within the Middle East and North Africa, in the interwar period. Reading League of Nations' reports on traffic in women and children along with other published and archival sources, it situates women's mobility within three significant waves of migration at the time: of south European men and women to Europe's colonies in North Africa; of east European Jews westwards and southwards; and of Syrians outside of Mt. Lebanon. It shows how women's migration can be explained and traced by following such temporary travelers as tourists, sailors, and soldiers and such more permanent migrants as settlers, refugees, and labor migrants. By using the category of migration, this article argues that "traffic in women" is insufficient as an analytical category in accounting for the geography of prostitution and prostitutes' international mobility in the interwar Mediterranean.

Going Transnational: On Mainstreaming Middle East Gender Studies

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2016

Wandering About as She Pleases: Prostitutes, Adolescent Girls, and Female Slaves in Cairo’s Public Space, 1850-1882

Hawwa, 2012

ABSTRACT

Moroccan women's narratives of liberation: a passive revolution?

The Journal of North African Studies, 2003

Prostitution and Colonial Relations

Selling Sex in the City: A Global History of Prostitution, 1600s-2000s, 2017

Colonial encounters played a significant role in shaping policies and desires in both Europe's co... more Colonial encounters played a significant role in shaping policies and desires in both Europe's colonies and in Europe itself, and thus they deserve their own thematic overview. I define colonial relations as ethnic or racial-based hierarchies and segregations which developed as a consequence of western imperial expansion. These were unequal power relations in which the colonizer had control over, or at least attempted to control, residential choices, mobility in public space and across borders, and who wedded and bedded with whom. I thus follow Ann Stoler's contention that the very intimate domain of desire was shaped by these colonial interactions.1 Historical research on prostitution and colonialism is relatively recent. The argument historians present is that colonial domination and colonial power relations affected prostitution on multiple levels. First, the migration of women for prostitution to, between, from, and within Europe's colonies was facilitated, encouraged, or restricted by colonial authorities. Second, colonial urban planning segregated colonizers from colonized, industrial from residential, and respectability from vice. Such segregations did not mean, of course, that different social groups did not interact or even live together. It means, however, that questions of racial and class interactions were central to the colonial vision of the city. These policies, in turn, affected the urban geography of prostitution, its interaction with the city's inhabitants, and divisions within brothels or prostitutes' quarters. Furthermore, the permanent and temporary migration of men-as soldiers, sailors, or industrial workers-created highly gender-imbalanced environments, and prostitutes were the only women officially allowed in some of them.2

18. Girls, Labor, and Sex in Precolonial Egypt, 1850–1882

The silence of the pregnant bride: Non-marital sex in Middle Eastern societies

Regulated brothels in mandatory Syria and Lebanon: Between the traffic in women and the permanent mandate commissions

The League of Nations' Work on Social Issues, 2016

French authorities operated regulated brothels in the Levant since the beginning of the French Ma... more French authorities operated regulated brothels in the Levant since the beginning of the French Mandate in 1920. The League of Nations interest in traffiin women and children and in monitoring the mandates brought these brothels to its committees attention. Thischapter compares and contrasts the League of Nations handling of prostitution in the Levant by the Advisory Committee on Traffiin Women and Children and the Permanent Mandate Commission to reveal how complicit both were with French colonial rule, and at the same time how they enabled anti-colonial criticism to slip through the cracks. More generally, it questions how they tried to reconcile the Leagues commitment to social issues with the lingering influenceof colonial powers.

Prostitution in Port Said

Port Said was founded in 1859 and named after the Governor of Egypt, Sa‘id Pasha (1854–1863). Ini... more Port Said was founded in 1859 and named after the Governor of Egypt, Sa‘id Pasha (1854–1863). Initially it housed foreign engineers and workers of the Suez Canal. Upon its inauguration in 1869, the Suez Canal was the main connection between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea — and further to India and South Asia — which replaced the long and costly trip around the south of Africa. Port Said thus became the Canal’s main harbour and principal coal station. During the later decades of the nineteenth century, it attracted foreign consuls and representatives of foreign business operations, coal workers and service personnel. Like many other cities in the colonized world, it was a divided city, as Egyptians and Europeans inhabited different neighbourhoods. From a modest beginning of 10,000 inhabitants in 1869, it became a city of 100,000 in the interwar period.

Doctors Crossing Borders: The Formation of a Regional Profession in the Interwar Middle East

Middle Eastern and North African Societies in the Interwar Period, 2018

These conferences may be political, they may be social, they may be scientific, they may be artis... more These conferences may be political, they may be social, they may be scientific, they may be artistic, they may be industrial, economic or sportive", wrote Egyptian pan-Arab intellectual Muhammad ʿAli ʿAluba in an April 1939 special issue of al-Hilal on Arabism and Islam in reference to regional and all-Arab professional and organizational conferences. "When the different Arab nations agree on the production of such conferences, their provisioning and their continuous existence, these conferences bring together these nations that speak the same language, turn them into a united block worthy of high status among the nations, and groom them to become a powerful actor on the world stage". It is the bureaucracy at work bringing men and women together, the face-to-face exchanges fostered in these conferences, he argued, that creates the kind of Arab solidarity that would later be translated into political action. When Arab solidarity becomes concrete, in these multiple arenas and various contexts, Arab politics is born.1 I start with ʿAluba's observation as it allows us to think of Arab politics in the interwar years as being formed and developed in the context of regional professional networking gatherings, one of which was the medical conferences. The mundane routine of middle-class professional networks enabled these men to imagine an Arab nation in ways that had not existed before. These conferences, I argue here, were indeed arenas for political socialization, but they were building on and supplementing a much deeper infrastructure of shared educational venues, literary exchanges, and only after these were shared networks formed: the professional conferences. This chapter examines networks and interconnections between medical doctors, and looks at the formation of a transnational professional identity. 1 ʿAluba, Muhammad ʿAli, "Ahmiyyat al-muʾtamarat al-ʿarabiyya fi nuhud al-muslimin wa-l-ʿarab" [The importance of the Arab conferences in the awakening of the Muslims and the Arabs], al-Hilal: ʿAdad mumtaz al-ʿArab wa-l-Islam fi-l-ʿasr al-hadith [al-Hilal: Special issue-The Arabs and Islam in the Modern Age] (Cairo: Dar al-Hilal, 1939), pp. 51-3, quoted from p. 51.

Translating Sexology, Writing the Nation:: Sexual Discourse and Practice in Hebrew and Arabic in the 1930s

Arabic during the 1920s and 1930s. It turns to translation to trace how ideas traveled from Europ... more Arabic during the 1920s and 1930s. It turns to translation to trace how ideas traveled from Europe, and especially German sexology, to the Middle East, before exploring how the new sexological knowledge was transmitted into popular culture and received by some of the women and men who turned to sexual advice columns to better understand their bodies and desires. While sexology is commonly understood as a scientific project that supports modern European nation formation, I argue that sexological debates also played a significant role in the shaping of ideas about both the individual body and the national body in Palestine and Egypt. The chapter begins with a discussion of the medico-scientific context in Palestine and Egypt in the 1920s, before examining the writings of two medical doctors—Avraham Matmon in Palestine and Faraj Fakhri in Egypt—who were key figures in the scientific debates about sexuality in their respective societies. Both men authored books and articles on sexology,...

Colonial and Post-Colonial Casablanca

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Women’s access to legal knowledge: the case of Palestinian women’s NGOs in Israel

Women and Knowledge in the Mediterranean

The League of Nations and colonial prostitution

Doctors Crossing Borders: The Formation of a Regional Profession in the Interwar Middle East

Black, Kinless and Hungry: Manumitted Female Slaves in Khedival Egypt

Girls, Labor and Sex in Pre-Colonial Egypt, 1850-1882

On the night of October 8, 1864, a girl named Sariyya was crushed to death in a cotton press fact... more On the night of October 8, 1864, a girl named Sariyya was crushed to death in a cotton press factory in Alexandria. The accident took place after dark, in the female section of the factory. The division of labor in the factory was gendered: while the men were responsible for pressing the cotton on the upper level, the women dealt with the cotton that came out of the shafts of the pressing machine on the lower level. The woman in charge of the female workers, a woman named Imbaraka, sat outside of the factory at the time of the accident. She explained that she usually left the room after helping the workers settle in their positions and did not see her presence there as necessary. Most important for our purpose, the investigation revealed that most of the "women" working in the factory, including Sariyya herself, were ten years old or younger. Alexandria's appellate court found Imbaraka guilty of harmful negligence for failing to supervise her workers in these hazardous after-dark conditions, and the Supreme Court sentenced her to one month's imprisonment. Then, in an edict that displays the complexity of delimiting girlhood and womanhood in precolonial Egypt, the court ordered all government agencies to disallow the work of "women under ten" after dark, in order to prevent the occurrence of such accidents in the future. 1 Establishing its role as the protector of girls, the court still conceptualized working females as women.

Women’s Access to Legal Knowledge: The Case of Palestinian Women’s NGOs in Israel

Women and Knowledge in the Mediterranean, 2012

Beginning from the 1990s, and in different Muslim countries, women's groups became more involved ... more Beginning from the 1990s, and in different Muslim countries, women's groups became more involved and visible in debates on existing family law. The uniqueness of Palestinian women's groups in Israel lies in the specific challenges they face as a political and religious minority in a Jewish state. By looking at the nexus of personal status laws, the Israeli state, and Palestinian women's organizations, this chapter examines how knowledge, produced and disseminated through civil society, is attempting to empower women whom both Israeli state institutions and patriarchal Palestinian society have marginalized. One of the Palestinian feminist activists I interviewed told me enthusiastically of a twenty-year-old religious girl, a student at the Islamic al-Qasemi College, who had introduced conditions (shurut) to her marriage contract. "I would never have thought of doing something like this," she told me. "In the midst of celebrations and all, when you think of your happiness and that of everyone around you, who would think of doing something like this? But she did, because she thought of it in advance, and talked about it with her fiancé, and they agreed to add a condition, that he may not marry a second wife." This anecdote illustrates some of the contradictions inherent in the struggle of Palestinian women in Israel for more rights in personal status laws, the laws pertaining to marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance and religious endowments. While polygamy is illegal in Israel, this ban is rarely enforced, leaving it up to a young bride to defend herself against this patriarchal practice. While Islamic law allows women to protect themselves against polygamy in this way, very few women are aware of this possibility, and even fewer would find it socially acceptable to demand it. Finally, it is telling that higher education in a religious college allowed a young woman to make a choice which a woman's rights activist finds to be daring. By looking at the nexus of personal status laws, the Israeli state and Palestinian women's organizations, this chapter examines how knowledge, produced and disseminated through civil society, is attempting to empower women whom both Israeli state institutions and patriarchal Palestinian society have marginalized.

Regulated Brothels in Mandatory Syria and Lebanon: Between the Traffic in Women and the Permanent Mandate Commissions

Translating Sexology, Writing the Nation: Sexual Discourse and Practice in Hebrew and Arabic in the 1930s

9 How to Work on Social History in the Egyptian Archives: Some Thoughts

"Modernities" in the Making, 2000

On 15 February 1874, 37-year old Ya c qub Jalula, a Tunisian Jew, shot himself to death. When the... more On 15 February 1874, 37-year old Ya c qub Jalula, a Tunisian Jew, shot himself to death. When the police arrived, they found him on his bedroom floor, the revolver lying on his pillow. On the bedroom table they found four letters, two in Hebrew and two in French. One of the Hebrew letters was addressed to his wife, c Aziza bint Shalom, and the other to a friend of his, one Monsieur Samama. The letters in French were addressed to Jalula's foreign debtors.1

להשתמש בזיכרון השואה והנכבה כדי להבין את קיומנו המשותף בארץ

שיחה מקומית, 2024

ספרו החדש של ההיסטוריון עמוס גולדברג מבקש לחזור לזיכרון השואה כמסלול לאמפתיה ולהכרה באנושיות משות... more ספרו החדש של ההיסטוריון עמוס גולדברג מבקש לחזור לזיכרון השואה כמסלול לאמפתיה ולהכרה באנושיות משותפת. במקום נרטיבים מתחרים של נכבה ושואה, ההיסטוריות של שני העמים הופכות אצלו לנקודת מפגש

Jennifer L. Derr. The Lived Nile: Environment, Disease, and Material Colonial Economy in Egypt

The American Historical Review

Sex and the Citadel: intimate life in a changing Arab world

Choice Reviews Online, 2013

"Important, brave and necessary". (Naomi Wolf). As political change sweeps the streets ... more "Important, brave and necessary". (Naomi Wolf). As political change sweeps the streets and squares, parliaments and presidential palaces of the Arab world, Shereen El Feki has been looking at upheaval a little closer to home - in the sexual lives of men and women in Egypt and across the region. The result is an informative, insightful and engaging account of a highly sensitive, and still largely secret, aspect of Arab society. Sex is entwined in religion and tradition, politics and economics, gender and generations, so it makes the perfect lens for examining the region's complex social landscape. From pregnant virgins to desperate housewives, from fearless activists to religious firebrands, Sex and the Citadel takes a fresh look at the sexual history of the Arab region, and brings new voices to the debate over its future. This is no peep show or academic treatise. Sex and the Citadel is a highly personal, often humorous, account of one woman's journey to better understand Arab society at its most intimate, and in the process, better understand her own origins. Rich with five years of groundbreaking research from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, Tunisia to Qatar, Sex and the Citadel gives us unique and timely insight into everyday lives in a part of the world that is changing in front of our very eyes.

Omnia El Shakry, The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt

Psychoanalysis and History

Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World Shereen El Feki

Reading Sex and the Citadel brought back many memories of my visits and then my year in Egypt: th... more Reading Sex and the Citadel brought back many memories of my visits and then my year in Egypt: the warning not to leave home with wet hair, because that advertises that you've just had sex; my evening at After 8 club, in which a gay couple took the dance floor as well as a beautiful tall transgender woman; and the young policeman who thought he could seduce me, was unfazed by the ultimate "I am married," and instead retorted that "for

Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics Edited by Beth Baron

Gender & History, Jan 1, 2006

Gender and the Making of Modern Medicine in Colonial Egypt

Middle Eastern Studies, 2011

... disagreements. My gratitude also extends to Afaf Lutfi Sayyid-Marsot and Nelly Hanna, both of... more

Women in Muslim Family Law.(Book Review)

Middle Eastern Studies, Jul 1, 2003

Prisons in the Late Ottoman Empire: Microcosms of Modernity, written by Kent F. Schull, 2014

Islamic Law and Society, 2015

CFP: a doctoral student

Call for participants - post docs.pdf

The Beersheba Experiment and the Medical Field in Israel, 1974–1981

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Dec 19, 2022

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