**3. Method**

This study comprises online qualitative research based on a thematic analysis of written online interviews with twenty Muslim women members of three Australian Muslim online Facebook groups: Progressive Muslim women of Australia, Muslim collective (Sydney group) and Islamic Community Academic Network (ICAN), as well as some other Muslim women active on Facebook, who were referred by the first group of women in the sample (snowball sampling). Snowball sampling is a strategy to find respondents, whereby the researcher asks participants if they might know of other potential participants who would be willing to participate in the research. This recruitment approach tends to be effective when existing interviewees are likely to know others who may fit the research criteria (Patton 2002).

The inclusion criteria for the study are women who are:


After obtaining research ethics approval from the University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC no H-2020-0255), I initially shared a post to the three above-mentioned Facebook groups. After approval of the post by group administration, the participant information sheet (PIS) and research flyers were posted to the groups. The women who were interested sent a message to the researcher through Facebook and provided their email addresses. The questionnaire and consent form were emailed to each participant and the completed questionnaire and signed consent form were emailed directly back to the researcher.

Data analysis methods employed thematic analysis whereby specific themes were first identified, then these small-scale categories were merged into the main themes. All data categories and coding were developed using NVivo 12 software.
