Written evidence submitted by the Ashiana Network

Please see the link below that you may find useful.  I have also listed the experience of 3 different staff members below: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36587665

1)      Staff member 1

• I had a couple of Muslim female refuge clients that wanted to know how to obtain an Islamic divorce.
• At the time, a family law solicitor I was working with signposted these clients to Leyton Sharia Law Council.
• The clients believed that they would not feel properly divorced unless it was also done under Sharia Law.
• The clients’ experience of visiting the Sharia Council was negative.
• The women felt uncomfortable and intimidated as they felt judged, condemned, not believed when telling the adviser they had experienced forced marriage, domestic abuse, and were encouraged to consider mediation.
• The women felt discriminated against as family disputes are resolved under Sharia law.

2)      Staff member 2

A)      I have had pretty bad experience with Leyton Sharia Council. The last time that I went there was with IB about 3 years ago. Even though she had need seen or heard from her husband in 6 years, we were told by the Imam that IB should return to her husband’s family home, and ‘wait for him, as he is sure to return one day’.

B)      AB had a very positive response from the Islamic Judiciary Board in Birmingham. They understood AB’s reasons for wanting to apply for a divorce, and followed through with the process. After the second time the Judiciary Board wrote to AB’s husband, he responded and accepted the grounds, and the Imam processed the divorce certificate. As AB still had a balance of £50.00, when I called them, I asked them to waiver this, and explained that AB was still living in the refuge, and the Imam kindly waivered it.

C)      However, more recently I did not have a positive result from the Islamic Judiciary Board in Birmingham as I assisted KJK in calling them, as KJK wanted to get her dowry money back, and also her gold When we spoke to an Imam approximately a month ago, we were told that according to Islam, KJK is entitled to get her dowry back, along with her gold. They took KJK’s number, and also took KJK’s husband. We were told by the Imam that he would call KJK’s husband and contact us with an update. He had not contacted us, and therefore we contacted him. He was unavailable to speak with us, so we spoke to another Imam, and this Imam told us the opposite. We were informed today that there was nothing that we could do, and it was our word against KJK’s husband’s word, and that he was not in a position to contact KJK’s husband. We are now going to approach other Islamic Council’s to see if we can get further advice.

3) Staff member 3

I did not have a positive experience with Leyton Sharia Council when I did advocacy work for one of my clients.

1)      They were very judgemental. Each session that I attended with client they deliberately made her cry through the whole session by making her feel guilty about having a child out of wedlock.

2)      They do not have any discretion of fee waiver for NRPF client who can’t afford 400 GBP.

3)       Every time that we went to session someone new who  did not know anything about the case saw the client and she had to go through the whole story with them again

4)      After more than 6 month of meetings, before “granting her the Khula” they said that Forced Marriage is not even recognised in Islam and she did not need to go through the process!

5)      Encouraging them to stay in the abusive relationship or re-marrying soon after their divorce comes through. I thought after charging her £350 (she was on benefit so paid £50 less), booking her few appointments, and the stress this had caused for the client, she did not need to go through that hassle at all.

Pam Saleem, Housing Services Manager

Ashiana Network