Methodology
This chapter uses qualitative research (grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967:1)) and focus groups (Calder, 1977). Data is drawn principally from semi-structured in-depth face-to-face interviews with 30 Muslim women.
Of the 30 women, 25 were individually interviewed and five women from a focus group (aged between 18 and 55) between 2012 and 2016. These were women who were victims of abuse and attended Islamic arbitration, mediation sessions at the Shari’a Councils or mediation with English mediators. Women interviewed were sub-divided into four demographic categories: educational background; registered/unregistered/polygamous marriages (these were in registered and polygamous marriages); British/non-British (these were settled national immigrants with valid leave to remain such as spouse, student or visitor visa and immigrants without valid leave to remain such as over-stayers or failed asylum seekers); and the Islamic school followed (all practising Muslims). The languages spoken were: English, Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu, Pothwari, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi; and interpreters were only required for Arabic, Pothwari and Farsi/Pashtu. The interviews were conducted in the following cities: London, Bolton, Manchester, Southampton, Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Leicester and Wolverhampton. These women agreed to share their experiences of Shari’a Councils, English mediators and civil family courts. Interviews focused on mediation experiences at Shari’a Councils and with English mediators, and questioned encounters of discrimination, power imbalances, desirable outcomes achieved, conduct of the mediators, understanding of their problem and procedural information given. Pseudonyms were used for the interviewees. Thematic analysis of data was undertaken.The empirical research conducted was intended to ascertain how views relating to mediation are reached by Muslim women on whether or not to enter mediation, their basis and beliefs, and, particularly, power imbalance sources.
Participants were selected using practitionerbased cases (these were through direct contact with participants in practice undergoing mediation sessions with Shari’a Councils and English mediators and indirect contact with participants who had already gone through mediation sessions) and snowballing technique to recruit participants (Hesse-Biber and Leavy, 2006). Snowballing technique is when existing women would refer others as potential participants. Snowball effect helped to generate further participants and to maximise potential recruits to the research. The fieldwork involved handling very sensitive data, all the ethical standards professionally and from an academic research perspective, including confidentiality.8The aim was to interview as many individuals from as many diverse backgrounds as possible to present original and new findings. Following established protocols on conducting ethical research (requiring informed consent, translations provided in Arabic/Farsi to participants and respecting confidentiality), interviews were recorded and lasted one-two hours each. When interpreting interview transcripts, each narrative was examined based on close readings of statements. Statements made by participants were grouped into themes using discourse analysis (which is a study of written and spoken language in
Domestic Abuse 83 relation to its social context), representing emerging themes, ideas and the content that the researcher thought was particularly significant (Gee and Handford, 2013). There were searches conducted on any connections between topics discussed, what was significant to each participant, what was frequently said and there was analysis of how one theme in one interview transcript related to another transcript. The emerging themes were then organised and further explored in order to provide a coherent overview of the findings from the data.
There are limitations to this method. In this chapter’s research, victims of abuse (these were victims who suffered physical, mental, psychological, financial, coercive abuse who had agreed to participate through a research website which is now closed) were difficult to reach because their movements were controlled and most were subject to insecure immigration status, financial and language barriers.
The author was mindful that the potential participants were not placed at additional risk by engaging in research and therefore participants who were receiving additional support services were selected.Questions ranged from 1 to 20 and enabled an in-depth exploration of the participants’ reasoning for selecting a particular forum, choosing different options of mediation and solutions, experiences under Islamic and English mediation, MIAM experiences, views on screening process under both forums, experiences as domestic abuse victims, type of Islamic solution/justice expected, English family courts approached and problems encountered, particularly relating to different sources of power imbalances within mediation among Muslim women choosing Shari’a Councils. In addition, reference was drawn to the Qur’anic verse Q.4:34 regarding how domestic abuse issue was treated by Shari’a Councils, particularly, but due to lack of space, this is not explored.
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A focus group (Calder, 1977; Breen, 2006) of five women was used to gather feedback on using Islamic and English mediation and as victims of domestic abuse, how they were treated by religious scholars and English mediators and as victims of abuse, the type of justice expected, particularly justice based on egalitarian principles these women were seeking. Participants in the focus group contested that as victims of abuse the English law does not always deliver justice, particularly for those who are denied legal aid or do not have a legal immigration status in the UK including government organisations such as the Home Office.
The focus group consisted of diverse demographic characteristics and recorded separately. These women offered some valuable insights to seeking individualised, egalitarian justice and were not concerned about seeking justice from the English family justice system. The majority of the women considered seeking Islamic justice first and wanted to observe religious values. Of the five women from the focus group, all five were practising Muslims and seeking Islamic solutions based on egalitarian principles. The remaining two members of the focus group were concerned with an autonomous-based justice (what was important to each participant to achieve) from Islamic Councils but agreed with others that egalitarian principles should be applied.