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For a Muslim man, it’s simple to get divorced – he just has to say “I divorce you” three times.

But for a woman, it’s a much more complicated business.

Wives have to go to a Sharia Court to ask permission, a process which is followed in the new Channel 4 documentary series Extremely British Muslims.

Birmingham Central Mosque has taken the rare step of allowing the cameras through their doors to see how they work, in a bid to break down misconceptions about Islam.

(Image: Channel 4)

The mosque’s Sharia Council is the only Islamic court in the UK with a female judge on the panel, Dr Amra Bone.

The cameras follow the case of Fatima, 33, who has been married for 14 years but who is seeking a divorce.

Her husband has been in prison for drug dealing for two years and she is on her own with four children and no support.

She reveals the “emotional abuse” she has suffered.

Dr Bone asks her: "If he were to come back and beg you and say he was willing to change, what would your reaction be?"

Fatima replies: “There’s no love or trust and I fear him. There is no looking back."

Dr Bone and the men on the panel want to find out if the marriage was arranged, and Fatima admits that she went against her family’s wishes to marry him.

But despite disapproving of her actions, Dr Bone announces that the marriage is dissolved.

The scenes in the court are in the first episode of Extremely British Muslims, called All the Single Muslims. It deals with the crisis faced by young Muslims who want to choose their own partners but have to balance traditional and modern views.

Many turn to the Marriage Bureau run by the mosque, which also has increasing numbers of divorcees on their books.

One of them is 37-year-old Osma, a mum-of-two who has been single since getting divorced nine yeas ago.

She says she knew the marriage was a mistake right from the start.

She goes to a matchmaking event and spots a man there she knows to be still married, plus another whose wife is “on her death bed”.

She chooses three men she is interested in but none of them choose her.

She says: “Divorce is a taboo subject. A divorced man might be interested in marrying another divorcee, but the family say no –they see it as a burden.”

Extremely British Muslims begins on Channel 4 on Thursday, March 2 at 10pm