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ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is fourfold. First, we seek to elicit the practices of middle-aged and elderly Moroccan Muslim women regarding mourning and remembrance. Second, we aim to find out whether differences are observable between middle-aged and elderly women’s practices. Third, we seek to explore the role of religion in these practices. Fourth, we aim to document how the actual practices of our participants relate to normative Islamic literature. Interviews were conducted with middle-aged and elderly Moroccan women living in Belgium (n = 30) and with experts in the field (n = 15). This study reveals that religious beliefs have a great impact on the practices of Muslim women. We found striking similarities between our participants’ practices and normative Islamic literature.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Chaïma Ahaddour
Chaïma Ahaddour is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven (Research Unit of Theological and Comparative Ethics), Leuven, Belgium. She conducted research on the attitudes, beliefs and practices regarding death and dying among middle-aged and elderly Muslim women of Moroccan descent living in Antwerp, Belgium.
Stef Van den Branden
Stef Van den Branden is a post-doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven (Research Unit of Theological and Comparative Ethics) Leuven, Belgium. He conducted research on end-of-life ethics among Moroccan Muslim men in Antwerp (Belgium).
Bert Broeckaert
Bert Broeckaert is a professor of comparative ethics and medical ethics at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven (Research Unit of Theological and Comparative Ethics), Leuven, Belgium. He has been ethical advisor to the Palliative Care Federation Flanders since 1999. From 2000 till 2004, he represented the Flemish Government in the Belgian Bioethics Advisory Commission. He was core group member of the European Pallium Project (EC), member of the EAPC (European Association for Palliative Care) expert group on prognostic factors and published i.e. several ethical and empirical studies on palliative care (including palliative sedation) and euthanasia and on the role played by religion and worldview at the end of life. In recent years, his research focuses on the way world religionsdeal with death and dying and more particularly on the way they influence treatment decisions near the end of life.