The Story of Zahra

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses rape, civil war, drug use, domestic abuse, and murder.

Zahra is a young Lebanese woman and the protagonist of the novel. Though she often seems fearful and quiet, she harbors deep anger—the result of the demands society makes of her and her attempts to model herself according to those expectations. Consequently, she spends most of the novel struggling with Sexual Repression and Shame, her efforts to tamp down her feelings causing her to appear unpredictable to those around her and contributing to her frequent hospitalizations. Ultimately, Zahra feels trapped by the circumstances she faces and doesn’t know how to respond to them in ways that won’t get her hurt or ostracized.

Zahra is frequently taken advantage of, raped, and otherwise lusted after by the men in her life, which contributes to her sense of distance from “normal society.” It is only when the war normalizes trauma that Zahra feels “human” and abandons her attempts to conform to societal dictates. The war similarly changes her perspective on herself; when she sees an image of a beautiful Persian woman, she thinks, “I have joined that species of woman and am able to bear a comparison with her” (184).