Interpreting ‘living law’ amongst Muslim women in the UK

Khan, A

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is to capture, describe, understand and articulate the ways in which Muslim women view and interpret crime, deviance and moral dilemmas in contemporary society. This study will evaluate the contrasts and overlaps between religious ideologies, cultural values and secular norms in relation to Muslim women’s comprehension of moral dilemmas which involves prohibitions in Islam.

The present study will also capture how Muslim women formulate living law, how they come to the knowledge of what informs their perspective about crime, how they react and respond to crime and deviancy and how they interpret moral codes, which draws on the concept of legal pluralism. This will involve the discussion of how Muslim women interpret religious and secular norms in Britain which will result in the comprehension of what is central to their daily lives.

The theoretical framework that will be adopted to anchor the current project is legal pluralism and living law. The current project draws on the renewed interest in ‘living law’ as originally espoused by Eugen Ehrlich. Ehrlich recommends that to better comprehend how respondents live their everyday life under the living law, then an in-depth study should be conducted that will allow a clearer comprehension of how respondent’s view their surrounding environment, social behaviour, habits and how moral codes are interpreted.

The current project embraces a qualitative approach, by using 30 semi-structured interviews to explore and capture Muslim women’s interpretations and views in response to moral dilemmas, crime and deviance in contemporary society. This sample is comprised of a range of Muslim women in the UK that self-categorised themselves to be less adhering Muslims and more adhering Muslims.

Citation

Khan, A. Interpreting ‘living law’ amongst Muslim women in the UK. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jan 3, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 13, 2021
• Award Date: Nov 1, 2019