Polygyny

This is a book about power and cultural exactitudes. It is also about limits and possibilities and real perceived disparities, household organisation and religion. It looks at African-American Muslim women and their rights to speak, be heard, and control their depictions, their marriages, and their lived experiences in a polygamous marital institution. The book is made of six concise chapters. Chapter 1 situates African-American Muslims as a visible segment of American Muslims who live polygamy. Here Debra Majeed explores the religious and social dynamics they use to justify their household arrangements. The key question addressed in chapter 2 is: What options are available to African-American Muslim women who desire marriage when African-Americans are portrayed as the single most uncoupled people in the country? Here, the reader is drawn on to the experiences of twelve participants practising polygamy who become the authors of their own tales. Particular attention is afforded to the enigmas and paradoxes of living polygamy while acknowledging the benefits available to Muslim women who claim polygamy is liberating. This is an excellent chapter as the reader is able to appreciate how complex the dealings are within the polygamous marital home. More than this, the reader develops an emotional connection with the participants which allows him or her to engage sensitively with the narratives.