ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on empirical evidence and feminist legal theory on gender equality and power to examine Muslim women seeking mediation from English or Islamic religious forum at Shari’a Councils particularly in domestic abuse cases. Against this backdrop, this chapter focuses on power imbalances and gender inequalities in mediation. Muslim women encounter power imbalances, they suffer discrimination within Shari’a Councils because there are no safeguards or adequate intervention models for Muslim women. This prompted a Home Office independent review to investigate, among other things, whether Islamic arbitration and mediation conducted by them are contrary to English law, particularly by discrimination against women. The absence of safeguards could render mediation more harmful in the presence of power imbalances between parties. The findings suggest that, as Muslim women’s autonomy and agency are exercised, Islamic arbitration and mediation hold important meaning for Muslim women in the UK: to obtain an Islamic solution; it creates religious observance and to obtain an Islamic divorce which is not available under the English family justice system. This chapter provides empirical evidence undertaken on the experiences and narratives of Muslim women as victims of domestic abuse and it helps to develop interventions, innovative models and safeguards in the mediation fora.
