The Story of Zahra by Hanan al-Shayk was first published in Arabic in 1980 during the Lebanese Civil War. An English edition was later published in 1986. Al-Shayk is a Lebanese writer who was born in Beirut and witnessed the beginning of the country’s civil war before escaping to London. The novel is set in Beirut prior to and in the beginning years of the conflict and follows the life of Zahra as she navigates family, society, and the realities of war; though primarily narrated in the first person by Zahra herself, it also features chapters narrated by her uncle and husband. The Story of Zahra explores themes of sexual repression, abandonment and displacement, and patriarchal violence. The novel has been banned in several Middle Eastern countries.

This study guide uses the First Anchor Books paperback edition, published in 1995 and translated by Peter Ford.

Content Warning: The novel depicts instances of rape, abortion, civil war, self-harm, drug use, thoughts of suicide, medical abuse, and murder.

Plot Summary

The Story of Zahra begins with a young Zahra and her mother concealing themselves behind a door. This moment is one of many, as Zahra accompanies her mother as she pursues an extramarital affair with a man Zahra hardly remembers. Zahra feels confused and alienated from her mother. As Zahra grows, she continues to feel alone. In her adolescence, Zahra is groomed and repeatedly raped by a married man named Malek, who impregnates her twice and forces her to abort the fetuses. Zahra carries this secret in shame. She wonders how she could ever marry, as her potential husband might realize she isn’t a virgin. Zahra also compulsively picks at her acne, so much so that she leaves her face scarred.

She flies to Africa to live with her uncle, Hashem, who fled Lebanon after a failed coup d’état. When she arrives, her uncle becomes infatuated with her, and Zahra finds herself freezing in the same way she used to with Malek, locking herself in the bathroom to get away from him. She soon realizes that the only way to escape him is to marry his friend Majed. However, when she does marry Majed, she feels just as trapped as she did with her uncle, freezing anytime he touches her and attempting to flee him whenever she can. Though Zahra tries to meet the demands placed upon her by her family and the men that surround her, they treat her poorly and with ridicule. She locks herself in the bathroom again after demanding a divorce, and eventually Majed and Hashem hospitalize her—something Malek also did when she was in Lebanon. She asks to go back to Beirut to heal.

When she returns home, however, her family asks why her marriage with Majed is in trouble. Realizing that she is not free in Lebanon, Zahra determines to return to Africa and try again to be married to Majed. She changes her mind once more, however, and Majed reveals to Hashem the truth of Zahra’s life, except the name of the man who raped her. When both men pressure her to reveal his name, Zahra agrees once more to try her marriage to Majed. However, Hashem and Majed plot to return her to Beirut, and they medicate her before sending her home.

When she arrives in Beirut, the Lebanese Civil War has begun. Zahra initially feels comfortable in the chaos the war creates; she can stay at home each day with no pressure to marry or participate in society. However, as the war rages and reaches her street, Zahra begins to wonder how she can work toward peace. She resolves to attract the eye of a sniper who has taken over a building on her street. After her parents flee Beirut, she begins an affair with Sami, the sniper. She begins to fall in love with the sniper, wondering whether society judges her for this. Eventually, she becomes pregnant but cannot have an abortion because she is too far along. She tells Sami that she is pregnant and that she wishes to marry. He agrees, but when she leaves his building, he shoots her, and Zahra dies in the street.