Blood revenge as an instrumental act to restore and uphold personal and cultural honor in Pakistan

• In Event: 30662 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4: Violence/ Fear of Crime

Abstract

Revenge is a globe phenomenon and is omnipresent in every culture. It is conceptualized as a motivated retaliation in response to an offense or wrongdoing that is construed as harmful or as a violation of moral norms. This article will concentrate on why and how an avenger resorts to revenge—notably blood revenge. Most previous psychological scholarship conceptualizes revenge as an expressive act performed for intrinsic gratification. Drawing on a recent theoretical study, this article explores that revenge is a social interaction in which peers—such as relatives, friends, and opponents, arouse an avenger’s desire for revenge by invoking honor-related taunts. Consequently, the avenger instrumentally enacts violent revenge to restore and uphold personal and cultural honor. Through this act of revenge, the avenger communicates to the community that he belongs to the Pashtun community and has successfully upheld the integrity of their cultural honor. The data for this study were collected through 25 face-to-face, in-depth interviews conducted with students from Pakistan’s tribal areas. The findings of the study have implications for research on vigilante violence and lynchings, where vigilantes enact violence to protect and uphold the integrity of their moral imperatives.

Authors

• Muhammad Asif, University of Toronto, Canada

• Hina Fazal, Bahauddin Zakariya Univ, Multan Pakistan