Research

29 April 2024

Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a problem that cuts across borders and communities. There is an urgency for domestic violence service providers in multicultural societies like the United Kingdom (UK) to adapt to the diverse backgrounds of victims, survivors and perpetrators to design and provide appropriate support services and interventions. Religious beliefs are an integral part of many people’s lives and identities, while religious mediators often serve as a first point of reference for victimized parties to turn to, with both positive and negative impacts. It is currently unclear to what extent religious sensibilities are being addressed in DVA services, or how best to engage with religious beliefs and faith-based resources effectively. Recognizing this, we conducted a scoping review to identify existing approaches and practices for integrating religious beliefs and faith-based resources in domestic violence services. The review that had an international scope was conducted in English and included 30 publications. The synthesis of the evidence pointed to numerous approaches and efforts in integrating religious beliefs and faith-based resources in DVA services, differences and tensions in generalist and community-based responses, and the need for various measures in DVA services to cater to multicultural populations.

Project dldl/ድልድል and EMIRTA 2023

On November 11-12 last year, the Project dldl/ድልድል Annual Conference was held in Addis Ababa in partnership with EMIRTA Research, Training and Development Centre (እምርታ). The conference focused on the nexus‘Domestic Violence – Gender – Faith: Promoting Integrated and Decolonial Approaches to Domestic Violence Cross-culturally’and sought to promote a better integration of theological and religious perspectives in gender-sensitive work on domestic violence and abuse, facilitate a bridging of different theoretical frameworks and approaches to achieve a more integrated lens through which to appraise the issue of domestic violence and abuse and to identify appropriate responses by means of working collaboratively, and contribute to a diversification of knowledge production in the area of domestic violence and abuse to achieve genuine knowledge sharing from the so-called Global South to the so-called Global North. Readers can now delve deeper into some of the rich presentations made on the day by accessing the newly published open accessConference Proceedings, which features nine full papers.

1 February 2023

Research on religion and intimate partner violence does not appear to have integrated well the current evidence on religion/spirituality, marital functioning, and mental health and lacks a cross-sectoral perspective that bridges psychology, public health, international development, anthropology, and sociology. A better integration could reveal how religious experience could be leveraged resourcefully in developing faith-based interventions engaging religious leaders and when counseling victims/survivors and perpetrators in religious contexts. The current scoping review explored (a) the influence of religious experience on the rationalizations, behaviors and mental state of victims/survivors and perpetrators, and (b) the approaches and effectiveness of faith-based interventions to respond to domestic violence engaging religious leaders, communities, and psychologists. In pursuing these questions, we aimed to overcome the dominance of Western definitions of intimate partner violence and religion by combining evidence from sectors that are more international-looking and studies from low-and middle-income societies that historically received less attention. The review suggests the need to move toward more diversified and holistic understandings of religion and more context-specific approaches to designing faith-based interventions and counseling responses that are theologically grounded and trauma-informed and embedded in the sociological realities of the individuals and communities they seek to support.

Project dldl/ድልድል and EMIRTA 2022

Project dldl/ድልድል held its first Annual Conference on 11-12 November 2022 in Addis Ababa,  Ethiopia with the option for UK speakers and audiences to join online. The Project dldl/ድልድል Annual Conference focused on the nexus ‘Domestic Violence – Gender – Faith’ and was co-organised with project partner EMIRTA (እምርታ) Research, Training and Development Institute in Ethiopia. A post-conference report was produced by the organisers to summarise the key take-away messages of the conference and to share the major insights of the discussions and presentations with a wider audience. The report has also been envisioned to inform policy directions in Ethiopia to respond to domestic violence and abuse in integrated, faith-sensitive ways. The report includes also participants’ feedback on the conference, which was collected through a post-conference survey.

ጸሐፊ፡ ዶ/ር ሮሚና ኢስትራቲ (Dr Romina Istratii)
ተርጓሚው: ዶ/ር ሃይለ ገዛኢ (Dr Haile Gezae)

ሰኔ 2014 (June 2022)

የካቲት 2014 ፕሮጀክት dldl/ድልድል በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ ካሉ የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ካህናት ጋር ጣልቃ በመግባት ካህናቱ በማኅበረሰባቸው ውስጥ ለሚደርሰው የቤት ውስጥ ጥቃት ምላሽ ለመስጠት የሚያስችል የካህናት ዝግጁነት ለመገንባት ጀመረ። ዐውደ ጥናቱ ለባህል ተስማሚ እንዲሆን ታስቦ የተዘጋጀ ሲሆን በዶ/ር ሮሚና ኢስትራቲይ በሁለት አሰልጣኞች፣ የሥነ ልቦና ባለሙያ እና በኢ/ኦ/ተ/ቤ/ክ ዲያቆን የሆኑት አቶ ሄኖክ ኃይሉ እና ከEWLA ጋር የሚሰሩት ጠበቃ ወይዘሮ ቤዛዊት ብርሃኑ ታግዘው በአማርኛ ሰጥቷዋል። እያንዳንዱ ዐውደ ጥናት ለተሳታፊዎች የምዘና መጠይቆችን በማደል የተጠናቀቀ ሲሆን የዐውደ ጥናቱ ቅርፅና ይዘት ለመገምገም የሚስችሉ ሰባት ጥያቄዎችን እንዲመልሱ ተደርጓል። የተሳታፊዎቹ ምላሾች እጅግ በጣም አወንታዊ ነበሩ። በተጨማሪማ በዐውደ ጥናቱ ይዘት እና በተካተቱት ርዕሰ ጉዳዮች ላይ ያላቸውን አጠቃላይ እርካታ ገለፁ።

20 June 2022

The report presents a pilot programme that was delivered by Project dldl/ድልድል with the support of EOTC DICAC to build the preparedness of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo clergy in Debre Birhan, Amhara region, to respond to domestic violence in their communities. The intervention was designed on the basis of Dr Romina Istratii’s previous long-term anthropological research on conjugal violence in northern Ethiopia. The report describes how the programme was set up and the timeline of its delivery and evaluation,  the training content of the workshops and the workshop format. It also presents the delivery team’s evaluation of learnings, followed by the participants’ own feedback collected after the workshops and in follow-up ‘refresher’ trainings and outlines directions for continuing and scaling out the programme and its potential impact in the future.

Courtesy of UK Data Service Reshare

7 April 2022

The current dataset includes assessment questionnaire responses by clergy participating in a workshop series on domestic violence that was designed by Project dldl/ድልድል and co-delivered with the support of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission (EOC DICAC) in Amhara region, Ethiopia. The questionnaires were collected as part of the programme’s evaluation approach, which comprised of a pre-workshop interest form that asked participants background information and a post-workshop assessment that asked them to assess different aspects of the workshops. A total of 155 assessment questionnaires were collected from clergy participants across 7 workshops. The participants were asked to respond to 7 assessment questions at the end of each workshop. Their responses were transcribed from the paper-based questionnaires in Amharic and were subsequently translated to English with the help of professional and native-speaking translators.

Dr Romina Istratii and Professor Parveen Ali

January 2022

In recent decades, more studies have emerged that examine the relationship between religion / spirituality, marital functioning and mental health. The scholarship on domestic violence (DV) / intimate partner violence (IPV) and religion does not appear to have integrated this evidence sufficiently and also lacks a multi-sectoral perspective. Ultimately, evidence from psychology and counselling needs to be bridged with evidence from public health and international development programming and studies in anthropology and sociology. A better integration could help to increase understanding of the multidimensional effects of religious parameters in the experience of DV / IPV and to identify how these effects could be leveraged resourcefully in faith-based interventions at community level and in psychosocial counselling involving victims, survivors and perpetrators in religious contexts. The current synthesis is the result of a systematic review that was conducted to start to bridge this multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary evidence to identify specifically: a) the influence of religious beliefs and experience on the rationalisations, behaviour and mental health of victims, survivors and perpetrators, and b) faith-based interventions in community and psychological counselling and their effectiveness. In pursuing these questions, we aimed to overcome the dominance of western definitions and paradigms of domestic violence or religion by combining evidence from sectors that are more international, such as public health and international development, and studies conducted in low-and middle-income societies that received less attention historically. We especially sought to distance ourselves from rigid understandings of ‘religion’ in an effort to make the review more relevant to diverse religious traditions and experiences.

ጸሐፊ፡ ዶ/ር ሮሚና ኢስትራቲ (Dr Romina Istratii)

ተርጓሚዎች፡ ኤልያስ ገብረሥላሴ (Elias Gebrselassie)

ሰኔ 2013 (June 2021)

የትግበራ ጽሑፉ ከዚህ ቀደም በሰሜን ኢትዮጵያ በትግራይ በሚገኙ የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ማኅበረሰብ ዘንድ በጋብቻ ውስጥ ያለ ጥቃትን በተመለከተ በተሠራ የጥናት ምርምር ላይ የተመረኮዘ ነው፡፡ ጥናቱ የምእመናንን ሕይወት፣ በጾታዊ መመዘኛዎች እና ልማዶች መካከል ያለውን ግንኙነት እና በዚህ ሃይማኖተኛ ማኅበረሰብ ውስጥ በጋብቻ ውስጥ የሚኖር ጥቃት በመቀጠሉ እና በመገታቱ መካከል ያለውን ውስብስብ ግንኙነት ከመረዳት አንጻር የእምነትን እና የሃይማኖት ልምምድ ያላቸውን ወሳኝነት አሳይቷል፡፡ እምነት የጥቃት ፈጻሚነትን ጠባይ እና በጋብቻ ውስጥ ከሚኖር ጥቃት ጋር በተያያዘ ያሉ ልማዶችን ለመከላከል ወይም ለማስቆም ውስብስብ በሆነ መንገድ ለንጽጽር በቀረበበት ሁኔታ ጥናቱ በነገረ መለኮት እና ባሕላዊ አረዳድ መካከል ያለውን ወሳኝ የሆነ ውጥረት ገልጧል፡፡ የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ቤተክርስቲያን ቀሳውስትና የነገረ መለኮት ሊቃውንት፣ የመንግሥት አካላት እና መንግሥታዊ ያልሆኑ የቤት ውስጥ ጥቃት መከላከል  አገልግሎት ሰጪዎች እምነትና የሃይማኖት ልምምድ በምእመናን የጋብቻ ሕይወት ውስጥ ያላቸውን ውስብስብ ሚና፣ በጋብቻ ውስጥ የሚኖር ጥልን ለማስታረቅ ቀሳውስት የሚከተሉት መንገድን በተመለከተ እና ችግሩን ለመቅረፍ ነገረ መለኮትና የኖላዊነት አገልግሎት እንዴት በአግባቡ ጥቅም ላይ መዋል እንደሚችሉ ለማስገንዘብ በሚደረግ ጥረት ይሄ የጽሑፍ ሥራ የዚህን የተጠናቀቀ የጥናት ውጤት ዋና ዋና ግኝቶች ለብዙሀኑ ለማድረስ ያልማል፡፡

Dr Romina Istratii

June 2021

The current working paper is informed by previous ethnographic investigations of conjugal abuse in the Ethiopian Orthodox community in Tigray region in northern Ethiopia. The research evidenced the importance of religious beliefs and experience in understanding the life of the laity, intersections with gender parameters and norms, and complex associations with the continuation and deterrence of conjugal abuse in this religious society. The study revealed important tensions between theological and folklore understandings, with ‘faith’ being juxtaposed in complex ways to ‘culture’ to preserve or discontinue pernicious behaviour and norms associated with conjugal abuse. The current working paper aims to improve understanding among Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahәdo Church clergy and theologians, state agents, and non-governmental domestic violence stakeholders about the complex role of religious beliefs and experience in the married lives of the laity, about the clergy’s approaches to mediation in marital conflict, and to suggest how theology and pastoral interventions may be appropriately engaged in alleviating the problem.

Dr Romina Istratii

April 2021

Unexpectedly, on 4 November 2020 (four days after the official start date of project dldl/ድልድል), a conflict erupted in Tigray region. The eruption of the war raised an urgent need to pay attention to violence experienced in political conflict and to war trauma and to understand the implications for domestic life and family relations in the conflict-affected communities, as well as identify linkages with religio-cultural parameters where these have been identified. The working paper has a two-fold aim: to deepen the analysis of domestic violence in conflict-ridden Tigray as part of the ongoing work that we do as project dldl/ድልድል, and to inform current humanitarian responses in the region so that they account for context-specific needs and the religio-cultural conditions of the people.

ጸሐፊ፡ ዶ/ር ሮሚና ኢስትራቲ (Dr Romina Istratii)

ተርጓሚዎች፡ ኤልያስ ገብረሥላሴ (Elias Gebrselassie) እና ፍሬሰንበት ገ/ዮሐንስ አድሃኖም (Fresenbet Gebreyohanns Adhanom)

ጥር 2013 (March 2021)

ይህ ጥናታዊ ጽሑፍ ከቅዱስ ዮሐንስ አፈወርቅ ሰባት ስብከቶች የተውጣጣ ሲሆን፤ በወንድ እና ሴት የጋብቻ ሕይወት ላይ ያጠነጥናል፡፡ ስብከቶቹንም በምልከታ እና ልምድ በዳበረ ኦርቶዶክሳዊ አስተሳሰብ (ፍሮኒማ) ለመመልከት ሙከራ ተደርጓል፡፡ ዓላማውም የቤተክርስቲያን አባቶች አስተምህሮን ለምዕመናን ነባራዊ ሁኔታዎች የበለጠ በማቅረብ ስለ ኦርቶዶክሳዊ እምነት ያላቸውን አረዳድ ከፍ ማድረግ ነው፡፡ የቅዱስ ዮሐንስ አፈወርቅ ትምህርቶች ጠንካራ የሆነ ባህላዊ መሠረት ባላቸው የኦርቶዶክስ ማኅበረሰቦች ውስጥ ከሴቶች እና ትዳር ጋር ተያይዞ ያለውን መጥፎ ልማድ ለመቅረፍ ወሳኝ መሆኑን፡፡

Dr Romina Istratii

March 2021

This paper is dedicated to St John Chrysostom’s commentaries regarding man-woman relations in marriage and the conjugal relationship as they emerge from seven homilies. An attempt is made to provide a reading of these homilies through the Orthodox phronema understood here as the experience-based historical conscience of the Church. The aim is to bring the works of the Church Fathers closer to the conditions of the Orthodox faithful and improve their awareness of the Orthodox faith. It is our belief that Chrysostom’s commentaries in particular can become an important resource for the alleviation of pernicious attitudes regarding women and marriage associated with tradition-oriented Orthodox communities.