Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today

by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Jane I. Smith, Kathleen M. Moore

The treatment and role of women is one of the most discussed and controversial aspects of Islam. In this volume, three respected scholars of Islam survey the situation of women in Islam, focusing on how Muslim views about and experiences of gender are changing in the Western diaspora. It offers an overview of the teachings of the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad on gender, analyzes the ways in which the West has historically viewed Muslim women, and examines how the Muslim world has changed in response to Western critiques. The volume then centers on the Muslim experience in America, examining Muslim American analyses of gender, Muslim attempts to form a new "American" Islam, and the legal issues surrounding equal rights for Muslim females. Such specific issues as dress, marriage, child custody, and asylum are addressed. It also looks at the ways in which American Muslim women have tried to create new paradigms of Islamic womanhood and are reinterpreting the traditions apart from the males who control the mosque institutions.

Genres: Islam, Nonfiction, Religion

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2006

About the author

Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad (born in Syria in 1935) is Professor of the History of Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations at the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Her interests and focus include contemporary Islam; intellectual, social and political history in the Arab world; Islam in the West; Quranic Exegesis; and gender and Islam. Haddad's current research focuses on Muslims in the West and on Islamic Revolutionary Movements. She has published extensively in the field of Islamic studies.

Haddad has been described as "at the top of her field in the study of Muslims in America" and "the foremost interpreter of the Islamic experience in the United States." She is the leading figure in a school of thought that sees the key issue for Muslims in the USA as being the conflict between traditional Islamic values and integration into mainstream US society.

Haddad received her Ph.D. in the Economic, Political Development, and Islamic Heritage in 1979 from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, and her Master's degree in Comparative History 1971 from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Additionally, she attended Boston University, where she received an M.R.E. in Religious Education and Leadership Development in 1966, and the Beirut College for Women in Lebanon. She was also Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Yvonne Haddad describes herself as a Presbyterian. She emigrated to the United States in 1963.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite provoking inquiry on what it is like for Muslim women (both immigrant and indigenous) in the United States. Very useful and fast paced. well thought out and executed. would recommend to anyone with an interest in the topic matter.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book serves as a decent introduction to Muslim women's experiences in America. The book is a bit too brief and reductive, however, and I was enraged by the fact that there are no footnotes!

[Valena Arguello · Rating 5 out of 5]

I agreed with just about all the ideas presented in this book and feel it's very important for us to understand and acknowledge the lives of these women.

[Narjes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads as a case study. A bit dry but informative.