Nation Women Negotiating Islam

C. S'thembile West is professor emerita at Western Illinois University.

Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Context for Women in the Nation Chapter Two: Perceptions, Rules and Practices Among Nation Women Chapter Three: Muslim Girls Training: Nation Women, Marriage and Family Chapter Four: Nation Women, Children and Education Chapter Five: Nation Ideological Formations and Women Chapter Six: A Shared Continuum of Black Women's Community Activism Chapter Seven: Nation Women and Politics of Protection Appendix Bibliography About the Author

Nationalist ventures-to forge a people-can neither be pursued nor realized, certainly not sustained across successive generations, through the efforts of men alone. Characterizing such ventures as "patriarchal" as though a sufficient account, is inadequate for the contributions of women are essential. S'thembile West discloses how this was the case for generations of Black women who became sustaining members of various iterations of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Her book will enhance understandings of the NOI while setting a model for producing more respectful scholarship on the organizational engagements of women devoted to the rehabilitation of communities and the forging of a rehabilitated people. -- Lucius T. Outlaw Jr., Vanderbilt University Carefully situating NOI realities within the larger anti-black American culture, C. S'thembile West's book expands knowledge about NOI women's diversity and self-perceptions, especially some women's thought ("freedom consciousness") regarding significance of their activist and conceptual contributions to shaping and sustaining the NOI as an enclave of Black love for the flourishing of Black women and Black people beyond the white gaze. This book is an important text that joins studies which challenge reigning presumptions of Black women NOI members as submissive, dependent, and unaware. -- Rosetta E. Ross, Spelman College