[3] She spent time as a student at al-Ahliyya National School for Girls in Beirut, alongside fellow future creative figures such as Saloua Raouda Choucair, with whom she became close friends.
[3][5] Malḥas is considered the first Palestinian woman writer to produce free verse poetry, without relying on meter.
[2] This marked a shift in Palestinian women's literary output before the 1948 exodus, which had generally been characterized by highly traditional, flowery language.
[1] She was described by contemporary scholars as a "poetess of abstraction,"[7] and her prose poetry was characterized by lyrical and mystical elements, including "unfamiliar words and images.
[4][9] In the mid-to-late 1940s, she began publishing poetry and prose in Al Adib magazine, and her signature style proved influential in the local literary scene.