Engaged Surrender
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A01=Carolyn Rouse
african american women
america
Author_Carolyn Rouse
black women
Category=JH
Category=JHM
Category=QRP
comparative religion
contemporary muslims
deindustrialization
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnographers
ethnography
faith and religion
gender issues
gender norms
islam
los angeles
mosques
muslim converts
muslim women
nonfiction study
obligation
political radicals
power and control
race and gender
social radicalization
sunni muslims
teachings of islam
true stories
urbanization
women and family
women in religion
Product details
- ISBN 9780520237957
- Weight: 408g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 20 Feb 2004
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Commonly portrayed in the media as holding women in strict subordination and deference to men, Islam is nonetheless attracting numerous converts among African American women. Are these women 'reproducing their oppression', as it might seem? Or does their adherence to the religion suggest unsuspected subtleties and complexities in the relation of women, especially black women, to Islam? Carolyn Rouse sought answers to these questions among the women of Sunni Muslim mosques in Los Angeles. Her richly textured study provides rare insight into the meaning of Islam for African American women; in particular, Rouse shows how the teachings of Islam give these women a sense of power and control over interpretations of gender, family, authority, and obligations. In "Engaged Surrender", Islam becomes a unique prism for clarifying the role of faith in contemporary black women's experience. Through these women's stories, Rouse reveals how commitment to Islam refracts complex processes - urbanization, political and social radicalization, and deindustrialization - that shape black lives generally, and black women's lives in particular.
Rather than focusing on traditional (and deeply male) ideas of autonomy and supremacy, the book - and the community of women it depicts - emphasizes more holistic notions of collective obligation, personal humility, and commitment to overarching codes of conduct and belief. A much-needed corrective to media portraits of Islam and the misconceptions they engender, this engaged and engaging work offers an intimate, in-depth look into the vexed and interlocking issues of Islam, gender, and race.
Carolyn Moxley Rouse is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University.
