It is not necessarily love and loyalty but your point is well taken.
It is actually more like a forn of stockholm syndrome on ly its been around alot longer. Abused children, especially those who've endured it over the long term, tend to be big pleasers, usually particularly anxious to please their abuser. It is not love or loyalty in most cases, it is survival pure and simple. The one person who seems to hate them and holds their fate every moment of the day in their sadistic hands becomes the only person on the world whose opinoin of you matters. Your very life depends upon it.
Although, I will grant you after the news that Zahra's bio mom was not at all in her life from the time she was a small baby, I do believe there is a bit of abandonment issue that played into Zahra's feeling for SM.
"My own mom didn't care enough to even stick around, and that was before I even had cancer. At least this one wanted me enough to marry my dad despite my cancer. If she is treating me like it must be my fault. I will be better, I must be better. Or she might not want/love me anymore."
This is of course ridiculous, but to a small child who faced the hardships that young Zahra has from a young age, makes perfect sense. IMOO
