Halālbi (Forgiving the Deceased Husband): A Study of an Ancient Ritual Behavior with Sociocultural Function in Reducing Wife Abuse

Halālbi (“forgiving the deceased husband”) phenomenon is one of the types of forgiveness or asking for forgiveness which is seen in people at the time of separations in which there is little chance of meeting again such as far and dangerous journeys, or when the individual’s suffering from incurable disease or is going to the operating room. It is a kind of asking for forgiveness of abnormal behaviors, actions and cruelties from people around especially the spouse. Asking for forgiveness or forgiving at the end of the communication line between two people is a very laudable behavior which has been common in the past in our society whether in cities, villages or among nomads and still exists among people to some extent. The present paper studies the functions of a special type of forgiving the deceased man by his wife or wives in his funeral ceremony. The research conducted in Bahmaie city shows that the conditions, states, actions, communications, messages and symbols of forgiving the deceased husband has established a social defensive mechanism which plays an important role in organizing and monitoring the behavior of spouses with its secret functions, in a way that it can prevent and decrease wife abuse by men among the families of these tribes. In a nutshell, when the man dies and is put in the grave, his wife is asked to come next to or go into the grave before burying him and forgive him at the presence of everyone there. In fact, she is allowing him to be buried in his tomb. The observations in Bahmaie city of Kohkilooyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province show that this ceremony has many sociocultural functions which are mentioned in this study.