A Growing Number of American Women Find a Safe Haven by Embracing Islam

The Council on American-Islamic Relations estimates that some 20,000 Americans convert to Islam each year, with women outnumbering men approximately four to one. According to Georgetown professor Yvonne Haddad, coauthor of Muslim Women in America, some, like Collins, are inspired by the rules of the Quran, which they find empowering. Some are seeking a community that endorses a woman's more traditional role as homemaker. Others are purely on a spiritual quest. "I think Americans should see them as women who have found themselves," says Haddad.
A 1999 journey to India set Collins, then a film production assistant, on her path to Islam. She stayed with a Muslim family for 2آ½ weeks, drinking tea and talking. She converted after reading the Quran back home. "I was blown away," she recalls, partly because she believed the Quran's teachings filled a void that existed since her parents divorced when she was 5. "As I'm reading, I almost feel as if I am being parented." Her own faith never wavered, however; today the Mission Viejo, Calif., resident works as the director of Al Ridah Academy, a Muslim private school.
Timna Valore-Schulze, 24, a receptionist from Bothell, Wash., wanted to become a nun as a young girl. Instead, after trying Episcopalian, Baptist, Pentecostal, Buddhist and Hindu congregations, she converted to Islam in 2001, deciding "it was the most feminist religion I had ever seen" because of its support for women's rights.