While I was browsing the online catalog of Morocco’s Bibliothèque Nationale in the winter of 2017, a search turned up the title of a women’s magazine I had not come across before: Shurūq, a short-lived periodical published in Arabic in 1965 and 1966. When I requested it, however, I was told that the title was unavailable. After several failed attempts to view it, I moved on. Queries with used-book dealers proved equally unsuccessful: many knew the title but could not recall seeing a copy anytime recently. I found a brief mention of the magazine in a chapter from an edited volume; it quoted Shurūq’s founder, Khenata Bennouna, who explained that she had created the magazine to counter the pervasiveness of writing for women “concerned only with beauty tips, fashion, and the kitchen” (Amiti 1999: 60).
Months later I noticed that a 2015 anthology of the magazine’s first...
