The Story of Zahra

Zahra, struggling with her guilt over continuing a relationship with the sniper, resolves to marry him once the war is finished. She realizes that she would not be able to continue her affair with him if her parents return home and he remains a sniper. She wonders whether he really is a sniper and decides to ask him about it bluntly and to offer her hand in marriage. However, the day she decides to do so, she feels fatigued and dizzy. Instead of having sex, they talk about the sniper’s childhood and how he lost his virginity. She leaves, and once she is home, she finds her mother has returned.

Exhausted and perturbed by her mother’s questions, Zahra goes to bed to rest. She wonders whether she might have cancer like her late friend Soumaya. She falls asleep, and once she awakens, she eats tomato kibbé (a ground meat dish) that her mother has prepared. She leaves to visit the sniper, telling her mother she has been calling on a female friend she met during the war. As she approaches the building, she wonders whether people know where she’s going and imagines she can pass safely because of her relationship to the sniper.