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Reading the Women of the Nation of Islam Ula Yvette Taylor, The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. 286 pp. notes, bibl. index, figures, pap., $29.95, ISBN 978-1469633930.
Author Ula Yvette Taylor sifts through various documents, archival material, and official reports to draw nuanced personal narratives of prominent female figures in the Nation of Islam (NOI) -women who were often silenced in their patriarchal movement and then bypassed by historians who focused on the men of the organization. The long list includes Sister Clara Muhammed, Sister Captain Burnsteen, Sister Thelma X Muhammed, Sister Betty Shabazz, and Sister Belinda Boyd. Some were the wives of prominent members of the NOI; others were more obscure. But all were pivotal in the movement.
Why would women work so hard to construct a...