Introduction

Since the pandemic surged in the UK, funerals across all religions and secular sectors, for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-related deaths, took on a new character, due to the adherence of necessary social distancing rules. This created added demands and stresses for both funeral service providers and mourners, as funeral directories were struggling to manage an excessive number of funerals, as well as ensuring necessary precautions for the safety of funeral staff. The Muslim religion constitutes the second largest religion after Christianity in the UK; the majority of followers have South-Asian ancestry (Office for National Statistics [ONS], 2011). Funeral rites play a significant role for Muslims, both theologically and socially (Jahangir and Hamid, 2020); therefore, some families were saddened by the socially distanced funerals and the omission of some rituals that they expected for their beloved ones (Parveen, 2020).

In the UK, 92 per cent of Bangladeshis are Muslim, who in turn constitute the second largest Muslim community in the UK (ONS, 2011). 15 per cent of Muslims in England and Wales are of Bangladeshi descent, which has been one of the worst affected ethnic minority communities during the coronavirus pandemic (PHE, 2020a). Public Health England's (PHE) analysis associated with COVID-19 transmission, morbidity and mortality suggested that British-Bangladeshis had around twice the risk of death when compared to white British people during March to May 2020 (PHE, 2020b: 4). The high death rate of Bangladeshi-heritage people created unprecedented challenges to the funeral and bereavement structures in the UK. These challenges merit special attention considering the impact of COVID-19 on British-Bangladeshi people and their life-transitional services (see Hunter, 2016; Maddrell, 2016; Stevenson, Kenten and Maddrell, 2016).

The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the Bangladeshi communities has energised the ongoing discourse on sociostructural inequalities in the UK (Islam and Netto, 2020). The PHE's analysis also concurred that the pandemic exacerbated long-standing inequalities associated with housing challenges and poorer socioeconomic circumstances, which made the Bangladeshi people more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.