Debra Majeed

Debra Mubashshir Majeed (January 7, 1954 – March 20, 2022) was an American religious historian, activist and womanist.

Early life Debra Majeed was born in 1954 to an African-American Catholic family, but later became a Protestant. At 16, her family moved to Los Angeles. In Pasadena, she served as a minister at Scott United Methodist Church. Her book approaches polygyny from a Muslim womanist perspective. Majeed was critical of the centering of Christian women and perspectives in womanist thought. Her work dealt with issues of race, marriage and family life, gender, and family law.

Activism Majeed was an activist for women's rights, particularly in the context of marriage and the family, regardless of family structure. She founded Queen City Family Advocates, that deals with familial well-being. Majeed was a certified Guardian ad Litem for abused children.

Works

Articles

"THE BATTLE HAS BEEN JOINED": Gay and Polygynous Marriages Are Out of the Closet and in Search of Legitimacy in CrossCurrents, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Summer 2004), pp. 73–81 "Khalidah's Story: An African American Muslim Women's Journey to Freedom"

Books

Polygyny: What It Means When African American Muslim Women Share Their Husbands. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2016.

Chapters

"Sexual Identity, Marriage, and Family" in The Cambridge Companion to American Islam "Womanism encounters Islam: a Muslim Scholar Considers the Efficacy of a Method Rooted in the Academy and the Church" in Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society "We Can Be Our Own Survivors:" African American Muslim Women on Love, Loss, and Life Following the Death of a Spouse" in Tying the Knot: a Feminist/Womanist guide to Muslim marriage in America "Muslim Marriage: A Womanist Perspective on Troubling U.S. Traditions" in Ain't I a Womanist, too?: Third-Wave Womanist Religious Thought "Ethics of Sisterhood: African American Muslim Women and Polygyny" in The Polygamy Question "Resisting the Veil of Universalism: Muslim Womanist Philosophy as a Lens for Authentic Representations of African American Muslim Women" in Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians “Afterword” from Polygyny: What It Means When African American Muslim Women Share Their Husbands, in Half of Faith: American Muslim Marriage and Divorce in the Twenty-First Century "Polygyny and the Performance of Gendered Power among African American Muslims" in New Horizons of Muslim Diaspora in North America and Europe