Abstract

Arab American Muslim women living in Dearborn, Michigan find themselves situated at the intersection of Islam, feminism, and American culture. Faced with ethical challenges in their lives, these women adapt Islam to different contexts in order to make decisions that are responsive to their communities while remaining authentic to themselves. These ethical theorists cultivate a process of discerning the relative priority they give to various influences in their lives and engage in negotiation on them with their families, friends, and their broader communities. They are able to draw on a repertoire of diverse cultural rhetorics available to them to fashion themselves in very diverse ways within the community that may be perceived from the outside world as homogenous and inflexible but are, in fact, not. The Islamic communities in Dearborn reflect the diversity we see in the United States, especially with narratives providing reflection and imitation for Muslim women to exercise their agency in various spaces. Interviews with civil rights attorneys, human rights advocates, religious leaders, and academics were conducted over four weeks through open-ended, semi-structured interviews and focused life-history interviews. One small focus group also occurred and consisted of Yemeni American Muslim women which enabled them to share their thoughts on key themes that arise in the overlap between Islam and women's flourishing. As home to the largest Muslim population in the United States, Dearborn, Michigan allowed the researcher to immerse within the Arab world as conditions in the Middle East prevented any research to occur.

Presentation Materials