ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the loss of honor actually occurs when the victimized family does not attempt to proportionally respond to the murder and, as a result, all members of such a family risk being branded as cowards. Blood revenge occurs as an act of retaliation to the murder of a kinsman or -woman. Studies of honor related violence hardly ever include blood revenge. Retaliation, revenge and feud are distinct notions, even though they are all related to an initial case of murder, or a lethal accident. The historical principles of blood revenge in the Middle East and adjacent areas are described two in religious writings of the region, the Bible and the Quran. Members of families that are entangled in a feud or a vendetta are in a difficult position: on the one hand the community expects them to kill the killers, on the other they are reluctant to attack other people and possibly become involved in a blood feud.
