Muslim family law: British-Bangladeshi Muslim women and divorce in the UK

This socio-legal study investigates the phenomenon of Islamic divorce in the UK. The background to the research problem is situated in discussions on Muslim women’s rights in topics such as Shariah law, multiculturalism and legal pluralism. These may echo concerns that classical interpretation of Muslim family law (MFL) follows patriarchal practices that discriminate against Muslim women, whilst civil law is committed to gender equality as promoting social progress. The debate regarding the diasporic Muslim communities in Britain focuses on concepts such as multiculturalism and legal pluralism. Critics of MFL argue against policies that accommodate group rights and contend cultures socialise members to their designated status, with oppressive practices hidden in the private and domestic spheres, and specifically in the use of Shariah councils. Proponents, by contrast, argue for religious freedom, among other grounds. Many agree that further empirical research is required on the subject. This study addresses this empirical gap. The central research question asks, ‘how do British-Bangladeshi Muslim Women (BBMW) pursue divorce in the UK?’ and investigates the choices women made, as well as the role of experts, religion and culture in influencing decisions. It uses a phenomenological-inspired methodology, with data collection involving 27 in-depth interviews with BBMW, 12 interviews with experts, participant observation of Shariah Council hearings, and document analysis. Thematic analysis of data produced findings with conclusions applicable to the British-Bangladeshi Muslim community and to a wider field including legal practitioners and mediators, academics, policy-makers and others. The insights gained reveal the strong influence of religion and culture in establishing norms, dictating the importance of nikah, and in establishing the marriage, whilst the taboo of divorce hindered women from divorcing and affected them moving on, post-divorce. The community avoided professional mediation and viewed family disputes as a private matter. The diversity of Islamic opinions caused further confusion suggesting a need for a specific information reference point for British Muslims. The women displayed a multifaceted approach in dealing with civil and Islamic divorce, and utilised the different systems to their benefit, forming new mechanisms of securing religious divorce without the use of Shariah councils

Minority religions under Irish law: Islam in national and international context. Edited by Kathryn O’Sullivan, Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2019, 254 pp., €99 (hardback), ISBN 978-90-04-39823-8; ISBN 978-90-04-39825-2 (e-book) [Book review]

This book is a welcome addition to the limited literature available on Muslims living in Ireland. It enters the wider discussion on the recognition and accommodation of religious minorities worldwide and more specifically the debates centred on Muslims in Europe. It builds on previous works such as the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs special issue on Islam in Ireland (2011) with an introduction by Oliver Scharbrodt and Tuula Sakaranaho, and contributions from others on the topics of migration, finance, education, and Islamophobia to name but a few. Scharbrodt et al.'s (2015) Muslims in Ireland: Past and Present further explores the themes of immigration, mosques, governance, and diaspora identity. These discussions and many more are expanded upon by Minority Religions under Irish Law, which acknowledges that the accelerated influx of migrants to Ireland within the last twenty-five years poses new legal challenges to the Irish state in recognising and accommodating Muslims in Ireland

Density perturbations in f(R) gravity theories in metric and Palatini formalisms

We make a detailed study of matter density perturbations in both metric and Palatini formalisms in theories whose Lagrangian density is a general function, f(R), of the Ricci scalar. We derive these equations in a number of gauges. We show that for viable models that satisfy cosmological and local gravity constraints (LGC), matter perturbation equations derived under a sub-horizon approximation are valid even for super-Hubble scales provided the oscillating mode (scalaron) does not dominate over the matter-induced mode. Such approximate equations are especially reliable in the Palatini formalism because of the absence of scalarons. Using these equations we make a comparative study of the behaviour of density perturbations as well as gravitational potentials for a number of classes of theories. In the metric formalism the parameter m=Rf_{,RR}/f_{,R} characterising the deviation from the Lambda CDM model is constrained to be very small during the matter era in order to ensure compatibility with LGC, but the models in which m grows to the order of 10^{-1} around the present epoch can be allowed. These models also suffer from an additional fine tuning due to the presence of scalaron modes which are absent in the Palatini case. In Palatini formalism LGC and background cosmological constraints provide only weak bounds on |m| by constraining it to be smaller than ~ 0.1. This is in contrast to matter density perturbations which, on galactic scales, place far more stringent constraints on the present deviation parameter m of the order of |m| < 10^{-5} - 10^{-4}. This is due to the peculiar evolution of matter perturbations in the Palatini case which exhibits a rapid growth or a damped oscillation depending on the sign of m.Comment: 36 pages including 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Development of an Interface Analysis Template for System Design Analysis

yesInterface definition is an essential and integral part of systems engineering. In current practice, interface requirements or control documents are generally used to define systems or subsystems interfaces. One of the challenges with the use of such documents in product development process is the diversity in their types, methodology, contents coverage, and structure across various design levels and across multidisciplinary teams, which often impedes the design process. It is important that interface information is described with appropriate detail and minimal or no ambiguity at each design level. The purpose of this paper is to present an interface analysis template (IAT) as a structured tool and coherent methodology, built upon a critical review of existing literature concepts, with the aim of using and implementing the same template for capturing interface requirements at various levels of design starting from stakeholders' level down to component level analysis. The proposed IAT is illustrated through a desktop case study of an electric pencil sharpener, and two examples of application to automotive systems

Application of the interface analysis template for delivering system requirements

yesThis paper presents a structured approach for systems requirements analysis that integrates use case modelling with a coherent flows based approach for describing interface exchanges based on the Interface Analysis Template. The approach is discussed in the context of current frameworks for requirements elicitation from the engineering design and systems engineering domains, and it is illustrated with an automotive case study. This illustrates the strength of the framework to support structured multi-domain and multi-disciplinary analysis of requirements for complex systems

Cytotoxic Effects of Bangladeshi Medicinal Plant Extracts

To investigate the cytotoxic effect of some Bangladeshi medicinal plant extracts, 16 Bangladeshi medicinal plants were successively extracted with n-hexane, dichloromethane, methanol and water. The methanolic and aqueous extracts were screened for cytotoxic activity against healthy mouse fibroblasts (NIH3T3) and three human cancer-cell lines (gastric: AGS; colon: HT-29; and breast: MDA-MB-435S) using the MTT assay. Two methanolic extracts (Hygrophila auriculata and Hibiscus tiliaceous) and one aqueous extract (Limnophila indica) showed no toxicity against healthy mouse fibroblasts, but selective cytotoxicity against breast cancer cells (IC50 1.1–1.6 mg mL−1). Seven methanolic extracts from L. indica, Clerodendron inerme, Cynometra ramiflora, Xylocarpus moluccensis, Argemone mexicana, Ammannia baccifera and Acrostichum aureum and four aqueous extracts from Hygrophila auriculata, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, X. moluccensis and Aegiceras corniculatum showed low toxicity (IC50 > 2.5 mg mL−1) against mouse fibroblasts but selective cytotoxicity (IC50 0.2–2.3 mg mL−1) against different cancer cell lines. The methanolic extract of Blumea lacera showed the highest cytotoxicity (IC50 0.01–0.08 mg mL−1) against all tested cell lines among all extracts tested in this study. For some of the plants their traditional use as anticancer treatments correlates with the cytotoxic results, whereas for others so far unknown cytotoxic activities were identified

Modulating the catalytic activity of enzyme-like nanoparticles through their surface functionalization

The inclusion of transition metal catalysts into nanoparticle scaffolds permits the creation of catalytic nanosystems (nanozymes) able to imitate the behaviour of natural enzymes. Here we report the fabrication of a family of nanozymes comprised of bioorthogonal ruthenium catalysts inserted in the protective monolayer of gold nanoparticles. By introducing simple modifications to the functional groups at the surface of the nanozymes, we have demonstrated control over the kinetic mechanism of our system. Cationic nanozymes with hydrophobic surface functionalities tend to replicate the classical Michaelis Menten model, while those with polar groups display substrate inhibition behaviour, a key mechanism present in 20% of natural enzymes. The structural parameters described herein can be used for creating artificial nanosystems that mimic the complexity observed in cell machinery. © 2018 The Royal Society of Chemistry