In this story, Zahra is an acne-faced woman who as a child had been taken along when her married mother had secret trysts with a lover. Last, there is the difficult situation a woman has in determining and accomplishing what exactly would fulfill her own hopes and dreams. Next, there is the family feeling that marriage and children are the ultimate goal (and value?) of a young woman, but woe be it to her if she is not beautiful and desired. Overall a sad and depressing book, it highlights some of the author’s ideas about her own Lebanese culture.įirst, there is the dominant male father figure who beats his women (i.e. This novel did include that as a major part of its story-telling, but it was quite forthright with regard to female sexuality. The theme of oppression of women often runs through books centering on Arab countries. Is this how we all are created - as minute as a fingernail becoming as huge as mules!' ' Look, here is a fully developed creature.' but one was more forthright and asked, 'why abortion after abortion?' another grew more outspoken still, and spat, swearing and shoving the dish aside 'I spit on the human being. And then exclaiming, 'in the name of Allah, the all merciful. 'I remember the neighbors pouring into the bedroom to greet my mother, then peering into the soup dish where the tiny embryos swam.

Here's one, after the protagonist's mother aborted twins: Some of the scenes in this book are so very strange. It's a misery! It's only because it's a fiction, that saves me from being so sad for this character. But she can't stand him wanting to have sex with her, so she always locks herself in the bathroom. To escape from the uncertainty of living with her uncle, she agrees to marry this man. But she's afraid of her uncle, afraid that he wants to get intimate with her, and so constantly locks herself in the bathroom.Ī friend of her uncle wants to get married, so he zeros in on Zahra as an easy conquest.

She wants to escape from the craziness of her home, so she goes to stay with her uncle in Egypt. She doesn't know about birth control, so she gets pregnant. She's looking for the love that she's denied in her childhood, so when a man at her work takes her after work to have sex with her and use her, She goes along with it, not understanding why, just letting herself be used. Her father beats the crap out of her all the time. Her mother uses her to pretend that they're going on errands, while she goes to her sexual meetings. Some of it may be nature, but most of it is definitely from nurture. Zahra, the protagonist, suffers from mental disorders.

The Story of Zahra by Hanan Al-Shaykh