Khoonsolh; dealing with Murder in a Traditional Manner

Khoonsolh is an especial ritual in response to murder which is still applied in some parts of the country along with official criminal investigation; areas where ethnic and tribal roots and characteristics of traditional societies are still tangible. In the traditional structure of such societies which embedded ethnic prejudice and belief in private justice, a murder might cause perpetration of variety of different crimes. In this regard, it should also be added that in addition to the individual identity of each person, tribal system has a collective identity as well. Due to the high cohesion of such communities, a crime against a person is considered an aggression towards all the members of the given community. Hence, the aftermath of murder will be the division of people into two groups: offender and victim. The consequence of such gap in the society would be the perpetration and continuity of various crimes against each other by these groups. In such circumstances, Khoonsolh can restore the shattered social relationships and prevent the possible future crimes through the participation of local community, heirs of the victim, murderer and his/her kin. In this article we have attempted to investigate the process along with embarking on the geographical domain and the functions of Khoonsolh ceremony. The main achievement of current study is proving the proportionality of given ritual to the restoration and revival of shattered relationships between the parties and prevention of crime.