The current policy brief highlights the significant potential that religious teachings and religious teachers and clerics can have in combating intimate partner violence (IPV) and how this could be leveraged by means of a case study and select published literature. It draws from findings from long-term anthropological research with communities in Ethiopia and evidence collected from a recent programme implemented by project dldl/ድልድል that engaged Christian clergy to build their preparedness to respond to domestic violence in Ethiopia. The findings from the case study suggest that theology-informed IPV trainings could enable religious teachers to become more active in IPV responses, provided that a) theological responses are embedded in the religious tradition that faith communities consider authoritative, and b) trainers are fully versed in the cultural context, theological tradition and IPV realities that the religious teachers they train are faced with in their everyday life.

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