Project Dldl ድልድል

Project dldl/ድልድል is a research and innovation project dedicated to the development of decolonial and religio-culturally sensitive domestic violence alleviation systems in East Africa and the UK. dldl/ድልድል means 'bridge' in Tigrigna language, a term that encompasses the project's aim to bridge different disciplines, sectors and stakeholders to achieve a more reflexive, decolonial and integrated approach to addressing domestic violence in faith communities. The project seeks to promote a decolonial approach to addressing domestic violence in religious communities by engaging substantively with the religio-cultural belief systems of the victims/survivors and the perpetrators, and by understanding how these belief systems interface with gender, material and psychological parameters to facilitate or deter domestic violence. Working with indigenous collaborators, and rural and urban communities, the project seeks to generate new research and intervention approaches, and to help towards reversing the historical knowledge transfer from the 'West' to the 'rest' by channelling evidence and good practices from countries such as Ethiopia into the UK domestic violence sector so that the UK can cater better to the needs of ethnically diverse, minority and migrant communities in religio-culturally appropriate ways. The project is led by Dr Romina Istratii at SOAS University of London and is funded by UKRI under a Future Leaders Fellowship (Grant Ref: MR/T043350/1) and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation under a Distinguished Scholars Award (2019).