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 their clients so that they can better support victims and survivors to cope and exit harmful situations, as well as help perpetrators stop abusive behaviour through interventions that take into account their socio-cultural context. Religious beliefs are an integral part of many people's lives and identities, in uencing rationalisations, attitudes and help-seeking behaviour around domestic violence. Religious mediators often offer a rst point of reference for victimised parties to turn to, with both positive and negative impacts. Despite this recognition, it is unclear to what extent religious sensibilities are being addressed in DVA services, or how best to account for religious beliefs and experiences in a manner that respects religious diversity among clients while recognising gaps in religious literacy among domestic violence providers, social workers, counsellors and other frontline workers responding to the problem. Recognising 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 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 multi-cultural populations

The current chapter discusses the relationship between wartime and intimate partner violence, focusing on women’s perspectives and experiences of the effects of war on their partners and the family context. The review engaged with studies drawn primarily from North America, Africa, Latin America, the Levant, and South Asia and examined intimate partner violence within military populations, civilian populations affected by war, and among refugee and displaced populations. The evidence points to a multi-dimensional mechanism that connects political violence to intimate partner violence, such as through mental health trauma and behaviour change among victims and perpetrators, socio-cultural parameters contributing to the further abuse of war survivors, or the breakdown of support systems and community solidarity that would be otherwise available in peacetime. Individuals affected by conflict tend to continue to face trauma-related consequences for many years after, which are defined within wider normative frameworks and material realities, as well as individual histories of trauma. Responses to conflict-related intimate partner violence must consider how political violence may intersect with pre-existing individual trauma and seek to support affected groups in ways that can prevent further abuse in domestic and communal life. Such efforts need to be contextualised in communities’ religio-cultural beliefs systems.KeywordsIntimate partner violenceWar-related violencePost-conflictDisplacementWomen’s perspectives

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. The conference created a platform for diverse knowledge from across the world to be shared on topics such as: Bangladeshi IPV survivors’ experiences in the UK, honour-based violence in Somalian literature, Zambian traditional marriage counsellors, interventions in refugee camps in Kenya and Bangladesh, indigenous women’s customary institutions in the Ethiopian Oromo community, mental health and spirituality in Ghana, intersections of Gender-Based Violence and faith at a Canadian university, family interventions in Rwanda, interpretations of Qur’anic verses of wife treatment, and many other relevant and inspiring topics. Readers can now delve deeper into some of the rich presentations made on the day by accessing the newly published open access Conference Proceedings. The proceedings feature nine full papers published in the order of the presentations given at the conference.

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 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 was co-organised with project partner EMIRTA/እምርታ Research, Training and Development Institute in Ethiopia. The conference focused on the nexus ‘Domestic Violence – Gender – Faith’ and had three overall aims. The first aim was to promote a better integration of theological and religious perspectives in gender-sensitive work on domestic violence and abuse. The second aim was to 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. The third aim of was to contribute to a diversification of knowledge production in the area of domestic violence and abuse and to achieve genuine knowledge sharing from the so-called Global South to the so-called Global North. 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.