Bridging religious studies, gender & development and public health to address domestic violence: A novel approach for Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UK

该项目针对低收入和中等收入国家对家庭暴力的有问题的理解和缓解办法。近几十年来，他们倾向于把英美认识论和经验放在首位，往往忽视或简单化地描绘了宗教信仰和灵性在家庭暴力经历中的影响。通过这个项目，我希望巩固一种非殖民主义的方法，优先考虑当地的世界观，将宗教文化参数更实质性地整合到暴力的生态模型中，并根据每一种情况灵活地利用神学和宗教行为者。该项目的灵感来自于我十年来在国际发展实践中的经验和在性别、宗教和神学研究方面的独特专长。它回应了以前对撒哈拉以南非洲宗教社区进行的对性别敏感的研究，以及最近对埃塞俄比亚北部埃塞俄比亚东正教中亲密伴侣暴力(IPV)的调查。这些一直表明宗教习语在公共和私人生活中的重要性，以及与性别规范的交集，特别是神学和民俗理解之间的紧张关系，以错综复杂的方式将“宗教”与“文化”并列在一起，以保存或终止有害行为。在理论层面，拟议的项目旨在围绕宗教信仰、人类心理和亲密伴侣行为的交集建立证据基础，这是一个由工业化社会经验主导的高度理论化的领域。我特别感兴趣的是探索宗教习语如何被用来为实施或面临虐待的宗教社区成员提供心理社会支持。这对于在传统宗教社会，如埃塞俄比亚和厄立特里亚，以及在移民人口多样化的社会，如英国，发展更加融合的、对宗教文化敏感的家庭暴力服务非常重要。作为试点，该项目将在阿克苏姆、埃塞俄比亚北部、阿斯马拉、厄立特里亚和周边农村以及英国的三个城市(伦敦、曼彻斯特、伯明翰)接触普遍讲阿姆哈拉语和提格里尼亚语的东正教人口。在埃塞俄比亚北部，该项目旨在建立东正教神职人员应对家庭暴力的准备，并通过提高东正教神学的识字率来提高信徒社区的认识，以扭转导致艾滋病毒的性别和婚姻的民间传说。在厄立特里亚，该项目寻求将家庭暴力与宗教文化世界观联系起来，同时建设宗教和世俗利益攸关方更好地应对家庭暴力的能力。总体目标是在不同利益攸关方之间培养更多微妙的理解，以扭转目前阻碍综合、合作和多部门做法的简单化陈述。这项研究试图利用埃塞俄比亚和厄立特里亚社区产生的知识和经验，为英国家庭暴力部门的辩论和做法提供信息，该部门越来越多地被要求迎合不同社区。该项目将结合对埃塞俄比亚和厄立特里亚东正教人口的民族志研究和与其他移民社区的研究，以及对英国家庭暴力部门的全国调查。其目的是确定家庭暴力提供者、移民社区组织和来自不同宗教社区的宗教利益攸关方目前在多大程度上认识到宗教文化参数的重要性并参与其中，以应对受害者和肇事者。知识交流和公众参与活动是该项目在世俗和宗教利益攸关方之间建立桥梁的基本工具，这些利益攸关方仍然缺乏相互理解和实质性合作的共同平台。

This project responds to problematic understandings and alleviation approaches to domestic violence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In recent decades, these have tended to prioritise Anglo-American epistemology and experience, and have oftentimes neglected or simplistically portrayed the influence of religious belief and spirituality in domestic violence experience. With this project, I aspire to consolidate a decolonial approach that prioritises local worldviews, integrates religio-cultural parameters more substantively in the ecological model of violence and leverages on theology and religious actors resourcefully as appropriate to each context.The project is informed by my decade-long experience in international development practice and unique specialisation in gender, religious & theology studies. It responds to previous gender-sensitive research with religious communities in sub-Saharan Africa and more recent investigations of intimate partner violence (IPV) among the Ethiopian Orthodox in Northern Ethiopia. These have consistently shown the importance of religious idiom in public and private life and the intersection with gendered norms, but especially tensions between theology and folklore understandings, with 'religion' being juxtaposed to 'culture' in intricate ways to preserve or discontinue pernicious behaviour. At the theoretical level, the proposed project aims to build the evidence base around the intersection of religious beliefs, human psychology and intimate partner behaviour, which is a highly under-theorised field dominated by industrialised societies' experience. I am especially interested in exploring how religious idiom may be used to provide psychosocial support to members of religious communities perpetrating or facing abuse. This increased understanding is important for the development of more integrated, religio-culturally sensitive domestic violence services in traditional religious societies, such as Ethiopia and Eritrea, but also in societies with diverse migrant populations, such as the UK.As a pilot, the project will engage the prevalent Amharic- and Tigrigna-speaking Orthodox populations in Aksum, Northern Ethiopia, in Asmara, Eritrea and the surrounding countryside, and three cities in the UK (London, Manchester, Birmingham). In Northern Ethiopia, the project aims to build the preparedness of Orthodox clergy to respond to domestic violence and to sensitise the community of believers by improving literacy in Orthodox theology to reverse folklore understandings of gender and marriage that contribute to IPV. In Eritrea, the project seeks to contextualise domestic violence in religio-cultural worldviews, while building capacity among religious and secular stakeholders to respond better. An overarching objective is to cultivate more nuanced understanding among the various stakeholders in order to reverse simplistic representations that currently hinder integrated, collaborative and multi-sectoral approaches.The study seeks to employ knowledge and experience emanating from the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities to inform debates and approaches in the UK domestic violence sector, which is increasingly called to cater to diverse communities. The project will combine an ethnographic look into the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox population and research with other migrant communities with a country-wide investigation into the UK domestic violence sector. The aim is to establish the degree to which domestic violence providers, migrant community organisations and religious stakeholders from diverse religious communities currently recognise the importance of and engage with religio-cultural parameters to respond to victims and perpetrators. Knowledge exchange and public engagement activities comprise the project's fundamental tool for building bridges among secular and religious stakeholders, who still lack a common platform for mutual understanding and substantive collaboration.