Abstract
Gender-based violence (GBV) is flagged as a societal concern in South Africa; as such, research on GBV in South Africa is an ongoing area of study. Given that a growing number of South Africans practise Islam, it is essential to understand how Islamic beliefs and practices impact the perceptions and actions of GBV within Muslim communities. Research on Islam and GBV in South Africa can play an essential role in helping to identify gaps and challenges in current efforts to address and prevent GBV within Muslim communities.
This qualitative research aims to contribute to this debate by revealing how Islam shapes thoughts and actions on GBV among Indian Muslims in Lenasia. Using a theoretical framework of lived religion, this study prioritises participants' voices and experiences in exploring how they utilise Islam to construct ideas and actions on GBV. A case study was chosen as the research design to allow an in-depth examination of a select group of research participants. Semi-structured interviews as the data collection method allowed the perspectives and experiences of the research participants regarding Islam and GBV to be examined closely. Participants were purposefully chosen to participate in this study resulting in interviews with four religious scholars, eight laity, and one counsellor. In total, nineteen interviews were conducted with thirteen participants. The interviews were analysed using selected tools from grounded theory as the data analysis method.
The findings demonstrate that although GBV within the context of Islam was the primary concern for the researcher, participants illuminated Indian culture as perpetuating violence against women. However, in as much as participants negotiated their identities as Muslim and Indian and attempted to separate the two, on deeper analysis, the symbiotic relationship between culture and religion emerged. The findings demonstrated how harmful practices on GBV, such as silence on the topic, are reinforced in both social and religious spaces in the community. Additionally, cultural practices were sometimes passed off as sacred in the community. Furthermore, when it came to Islam and gender, drawing on the Prophet as an example of what living as a Muslim should look like showed that the authority of the Prophet Muhammad (peace is upon him) was unchallenged: the
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Prophet was understood as having opposed GBV. Religious leaders themselves did not favour patriarchal interpretations and looked for different ways to interpret scripture to reflect fairly to females. Religious leaders were seen as central to spiritual knowledge. As such, participants believed that they had the power to influence religious communities. Ultimately, culture was perceived as perpetuating GBV, while Islam was portrayed as liberating and a solution to GBV in the understanding of participants.
Based on the above findings, the dissertation argues that participants were active players in identifying what GBV entails, what causes it and what could alleviate it. The research participants were willing to critique patriarchy and GBV in the context of culture and portrayed culture as a cause of GBV. On the contrary, participants, both males and females, did not see gender differences within Islam as patriarchal. This perspective showed agency in the way participants made sense of religious injunctions. Moreover, agency was exhibited in what and whom participants positioned as religious authority, which in turn informed their perceptions and behaviours on GBV. This ultimately allows one to assert that in the experience and thinking of the research participants, Islam was a central point of reference which eventually allowed participants to assert that Islam does not condone GBV.