This
article presents an ethnographic case study of Sunni women at The Muslim Center
in Detroit, Michigan, regardless of any previous affiliation with the Nation of
Islam (NOI). African American Muslim women, both those in the NOI and those
outside it, navigate an intersectional space where their race, culture, and
identity intersect with their faith. Often converts, these women have chosen a
religion that resembles the Victorian framework of the Cult of Domesticity.
Similar to how the Cult of Domesticity was created to give women an equally
important yet complementary role during America’s early years, the tenets of
piety, purity, submission, domesticity, and, for Black women, racial uplift
define the identity of Black Sunni women. Rather than seeing these ideals as
oppressive, Black Muslim women embrace them, actively embodying their faith,
cultural identity, and lived experiences, providing them a voice and status
within their families and communities. It is easy to view Victorian gender
ideals as oppressive and limiting from a modern perspective. However, these
ideals aimed to recognize and crystallize women’s significant impact on their
families and communities. Without their piety, purity, domesticity,
submissiveness, and dedication to racial uplift, the sweeping social movements
that have fundamentally changed the nation might not have occurred. Women used
the power given to them under the Cult of Domesticity to occupy two seemingly
incongruous spaces: private, submissive nurturers and public, assertive leaders
for change. Similarly, African American Sunni women harness the power of Islam
to do the same.
