Getty A Sharia supporter, left, Parliament and Mona Siddiqui, bottom right

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The petition, created by academics who have given evidence to a Government inquiry into Sharia courts, calls on the UK Government to recognise Sharia and all religious laws are arbitrary and discriminatory against women and children in particular. Sharia is Islam's legal system derived from both the Koran, Islam's central text, and fatwas - the rulings of Islamic scholars. The founder of the petition, Maryam Namazie, said: ”These courts are discriminatory against women, for example a women’s testimony is worth half that of a man’s, women can only have access to divorce for limited reasons, when a child is around nine and there is a divorce, custody always goes to the father irrespective of the welfare of the child even if there has been domestic violence or rape.”

Ramadan Festival 2016 Wed, July 6, 2016 As Ramadan begins Muslims around the world will endure 33 days of fasting from sunrise to sunset to mark the Islamic holy month. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 19 A Palestinian woman prays in front of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem's Al-Asqa mosque compound during the first Friday prayers of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan

The petition, which has so far attracted 31,000 signatures, states: “We demand an end to all Sharia courts and religious tribunals on the basis they work against and not for equality and human rights.” There are fears the presence of these courts mean many Muslim women are not getting the access to the justice that they deserve.

GETTY Professor Mona Siddiqui is leading the inquiry into Sharia Law in the UK

These courts are discriminatory against women Maryam Namazie

Miss Namazie said that she feared women are “rail roaded” to go to these courts and “there is a lot of pressure and intimidation”. Khola Hasan from the Islamic Shariah Council said: "Sharia is very flexible and allows divorce in a range of circumstances; this is available to both men and women.

"Claims that Islamic law is discriminatory are designed to increase Islamophobia rather than facilitate a reasoned discussion." A Government inquiry, which is being chaired by Professor Mona Siddiqui, is examining Sharia law and whether it discriminates against women. More than 200 individuals and human rights groups have signed an open letter urging Theresa May to dismantle the panel chosen to overseen the inquiry. Founder of the Centre for Secular Space, Gita Saghal, who signed the letter, said: “The inquiry should be led by a judge and not a theologian. This is not the right judge to hold people to account.”

GETTY Theresa May arranged for the inquiry when she was Home Secretary

The signatories are concerned the inquiry is seeking out “best practise” among Sharia councils rather than questioning whether they should exist at all. Ms Namazie said: “We do welcome any form of inquiry and we have submitted evidence to the Home Affairs Committee, but this inquiry is a religious inquiry and not a human rights inquiry.” Many of the groups have written to the inquiry saying they would be boycotting the review because of its limited terms of reference. Miss Namazie, a former Muslim from Iran, claimed the people running the Sharia Courts are extremists and it is “Islamists imposing itself in Britain”.

GETTY There are fears that these courts "exploit" Muslim women

Miss Saghal added: “We think the very existence of Sharia Courts threatens common law. There are women who believe they have no other option but to go to a Sharia Court and then they just get a useless bit of paper.” Although there is public knowledge there are 85 Sharia Law courts in the UK, Ms Saghal believes that the true figure could be vastly higher. She said: “It is a very secretive world and the courts have varying degrees of formality. People claim to be judges in these courts and they claim that what they do has the force of law. It does not have any force of the law anywhere. “These courts can be bad for women’s right, they are valueless and lead to pain and suffering.”