ABSTRACT
The Islamic State recruits men in part by promising them the opportunity to freely perpetrate violence against women without culpability. The project also provides training and resources to rabbis, including sermons, brochures, and other materials, and trains those who serve at Orthodox women's bathhouses to identify women who may be struggling with abuse. Intimate partner violence is life-threatening, and the stakes are high for women and children. The narratives show that women will often flee only when they believe that their faith allows or requires them to leave, when they believe neither that the violence is sanctioned by God nor that submission to it is required for personal holiness. Some churches are unwilling to face the way in which a theology of inequality leads to a vulnerability of women and children to violence. Central to feminist liberation theologies is the understanding that religious voices and texts often serve to reinforce male-centric cultural and religious norms.
