Listening to Muslim Women’s Lived Expertise Concerning Surviving Family Violence and Seeking Islamic Community Divorce in the Australian Context: A Qualitative Analysis of Muslim Women's, Community/religious Leader’s, and professional Responder’s Perspectives

Abstract

Abstract Many Muslim women in Australia seek religious divorce through various community processes, as religious divorce is often perceived to be more personally and spiritually significant than a civil divorce. Many Muslim women seek religious divorce because their current or former husbands have used domestic and family violence and coercive control against them and their children. The article is based on an Australian Research Council-funded qualitative research project exploring Muslim women’s experiences of Sharia community divorce processes in Australia. This multi-site research project took place across two major Australian cities between 2016 and 2020 and involved in-depth semi-structured interviews with 63 participants including, Muslim women, community/religious leaders and professional responders (for example lawyers, psychologists, community support and domestic and family violence workers) who have experience of supporting women through community divorce processes. This article explores Muslim women’s lived expertise to guide helpful and transformative responses to domestic and family violence in the context of religious divorce in Australia.