Revenge from a folkloric perspective

Ahmed Abdurrahim - EGYPT

Arabs believe that the dead spirit starts at the grave, and stays persecuted and lost, calling to take revenge, and cannot be in rest until it is revenged. The researcher focuses on the ‘Suwamaa’ village in Suhaj province, where revenge is widespread like all the villages in the countryside. What drives this phenomenon in the researcher point of view is the sense of shame, calibration and gloating by irresponsible groups or individuals, then revenge becomes as a chart and a way to retrieve estimation and dignity. The researcher refers to the important role of women in the process of revenge. She can have a husband, son, brother or father killed, a strong parental relationship between the women and those people, hence she is considered to be the major trigger of revenge. She does not grieve or wear black until she has taken revenge, thus her happiness. Then, her grief, black clothes, and the acceptance of condolence as men do. In case that the woman is married to a family that kills one of her relatives, she has the choice to stay with that family or leave to her folks. What is worth noticing is that she prefers to stay with her husband, particularly when she is committed to him by children who respect her choice with very careful not to talk about taking revenge in front of her. The researcher cites that neither religion, nor reason can stop this phenomenon, and that the noticed decreasing of it is due to economic and social effects. Many people whose economic and social life has been changed and own more money creates a new conscience that looked forward to the proverb which says “who killed must be killed”, it becomes limited to the killed and the killer families to leave the killer or take revenge of him. The researcher cites that it is believed in “Suwamaa” area that every killed has a genie in his shape and looks totally like him and differ only in the color of the eyes that are red and call upon revenge the killer.