Content Warning: This section of the guide depicts instances of rape, abortion, civil war, self-harm, drug use, thoughts of suicide, medical abuse, and murder. 

The Story of Zahra juxtaposes the gendered oppression of a patriarchal society with the turmoil of 1970s Lebanon to reveal the inextricable link between the personal and the political. Drawing parallels between the status of women (particularly Zahra) and the state of the country, the novel suggests that patriarchy permeates all societal structures, with disastrous consequences.

The intersection of Zahra’s interpersonal trauma with the broader social trauma of the war is key to the development of this theme. Zahra, a survivor of rape who frequently struggles with the impossible expectations placed on her as a woman, finally feels “normal” once the war begins. She reflects, “When I heard that the battles raged fiercely and every front was an inferno, I felt calm. It meant that my perimeters were fixed by these walls, that nothing which my mother hoped for me could find a place inside them” (125). Although Zahra attributes her newfound contentment to how the war has disrupted social norms (e.g., the expectation of marriage), the novel hints at other factors. The war not only figuratively externalizes Zahra’s trauma but exposes, by amplification, the patriarchal structures that underpin it: If, as

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