Exploring possibilities for an inter-faith training on domestic violence involving Christian and Muslim clergy in Ethiopia and Egypt

The fourth issue of ‘Evidence Bits’ draws from the findings of a study conducted Dr Romina Istratii and Dr Mahmoud Ali Gomaa Afifi with the funding support of an Interfaith Collaboration Prize 2022 awarded to the authors by the Gingko Library. The authors’ research was motivated by the question whether an inter-faith approach should be favoured over a faith-specific approach in domestic violence clergy trainings. They interrogated this question through qualitative interviews with directors and gender staff of Christian and Muslim faith-based organisations in Ethiopia and directors, organisational staff and activists working with Muslim (and in some cases Christian) clerics in Egypt.

The issue highlights: a) the need for both inter-faith and faith-specific components in training approaches, b) the importance of building intra-faith trust before inter-faith dialogue can be achieved, and c) the importance of developing a flexible inter-faith roadmap rooted in shared principles like dignity and justice that can bring clerics from different religious traditions together and motivate them towards a common goal.

Key take-away messages highlighted by research participants:

Trainings that brought together Muslim and Christian clerics in both contexts generally avoided engaging participants in theological discussions or debates to minimise the risk of creating divisions.

In both countries, practitioners engaging in clergy trainings understood the importance of integrating a social scientific or research-based approach that paid attention to the lived realities of domestic violence on the ground.