The Story of Zahra

The Story of Zahra takes place prior to and in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War, which took place from 1975 to 1990. Lebanon in the 1970s was ethnically and religiously diverse, with Christians and Sunni Muslims along the coast, Druze (an ethnoreligious group that follows the Abrahamic Druze faith) and Christians in the mountains, and Shia Muslims in the south. Prior to the eruption of conflict, militias representing a variety of causes grew in power as the Lebanese state began to deteriorate. The Lebanese Front was led by the Phalangists, a right-wing Maronite Christian political party aligned with much of the social elite in Lebanon and eventually with Israel. Factions in opposition to both the Lebanese Front and the Lebanese state included the Lebanese National Movement (LNM), a group of mostly secular leftists and Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims comprising the Amal, and the Palestine Liberation Organization, representing Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee population, which garnered support from factions like the LNM.

Whether the war’s complicated origins were principally political or religious continues to be debated; The Story of Zahra explores this very question through characters like Ahmad and Ibrahim. Regardless of its primary cause, the roots of the conflict stretched at least as far back as Fuad Chehab’s presidency—the president against whom Hashem engages in an unsuccessful coup d’état. This coup d’état by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party took place in 1961. Though Chehab’s policies tried to strengthen Lebanon’s development and state security, his efforts failed, resulting in destabilization and corruption.

As the PLO continued to fight for Palestinian liberation from its base in Lebanon, Israel began to raid Lebanon. Suleiman Franijeh took the presidency in 1970, but corruption caused him to lose the confidence of the Lebanese people, making him ineffective in controlling the agitation of various factions. On April 13, 1975, the Phalangists attacked a bus transporting Palestinian refugees to a camp in Tall al-Za’tar. This attack incited a response from both the Palestinian Liberation Organization (with support from the LNM) and the Phalangists, beginning the 15-year civil war in Lebanon.

As the war progressed, Beirut was divided between a largely Christian population to the east and a largely Muslim population to the west. Eventually, both Syria and Israel intervened, supporting Christians in both the north and south of Lebanon against the PLO. As the war raged on, Lebanon gradually became a militia economy. As leaders attempted to establish control over the state, General Michel Aoun, a Maronite, assumed control, attempting to expel Syrian forces. Syria, however, ordered a final attack to send Aoun into exile and ended the war in 1990 as Lebanon began the complicated process of reinstituting the government and rebuilding. More than 100,000 people were killed and almost 1 million people were displaced as a result of the war. The Story of Zahra is an exploration of the lived realities of this war, revealing the complexities and horrors the citizens of Beirut faced at the start of the war, which continues to impact Lebanon into the 21st century.